A -- SMALL AIRCRAFT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS DEMONSTRATION PLANNING

Notice Date

April 9, 2001

Contracting Office

NASA/Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 144, Industry Assistance Office, Hampton, VA 23681-0001

ZIP Code

23681-0001

E-Mail Address

Mary G. Coburn (M.G.COBURN@larc.nasa.gov)

Description

Competitive Tasking Notice (CTN) For Small Aircraft Transportation Systems Demonstration Planning Agreement Vehicle: AGATE JSRA dated September 1998, signed by NASA LaRC on October 7, 1998 NASA Org: General Aviation Program Office (GAPO) Langley Research Center NASA Selecting Official: Michael Durham, Manager, GAPO NASA Langley Research Center's General Aviation Programs Office (GAPO) is utilizing a competitive tasking process provided for under the NASA Advanced General Aviation Technology Experiment (AGATE) Joint Sponsored Research Agreement (JSRA) to create collaborative state or regional demonstration teams to work on small aircraft transportation system demonstration planning studies. Further information can be found at http://sats.nasa.gov The SATS Program Objectives The Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) Program managed by the NASA Langley Research Center's General Aviation Programs Office (GAPO). NASA has established an extremely aggressive research and development schedule that culminates in a series of large-scale regional or state "showcase" flight demonstrations across the country in the second half of FY05. The proof-of-concept demonstrations will showcase four new operational capabilities: (1) high-volume operations at airports without control towers or terminal radar facilities; (2) lower adverse weather landing minimums at minimally equipped landing facilities; (3) integration of GA aircraft into a higher en route capacity air traffic control system with complex flows and slower aircraft; and (4) improved single-pilot ability to function competently in complex airspace in an evolving National Airspace System (NAS). The new operating capabilities will be based on key enabling technologies developed and integrated into the flight demonstration aircraft over the life of the program. Further information on the SATS Program can be found at the following website: http://sats.nasa.gov. In order to begin working towards the program objectives, four activities need to be initiated. The first is the development of plans for the FY05 flight demonstrations. The second is early technology investments in key enabling areas with flight experiments as needed. The third is systems analyses that begin to assess the technology impacts on the four operating capabilities and establish an air transportation system baseline; and fourth, a systems engineering plan that provides a structured approach to achieving the objectives. Tasking Process -- A competitive tasking process will be utilized to create collaborative state or regional demonstration teams working within the newly formed SATS Demonstration Technical Team. This tasking process and the resulting teams will operate under the AGATE Joint Sponsored Research Agreement Terms and Conditions (JSRA T&C). The JSRA is a NASA Space Act Agreement rather than a Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) contract. The AGATE JSRA terms and conditions provide for the formation of a new technical team through a competitive tasking process for small aircraft transportation systems demonstration planning studies. Specifically, NASA is the Manager of the Alliance under Article 8 of the AGATE JSR. Among the manager's duties is the responsibility for systems engineering (8.01.1) and to determine where it is necessary, in consultation with the Executive Council, to form new Technical Teams (Article 8.03(iii)). SATS Demonstration Technical Team -- The SATS Demonstration Technical Team will act to coordinate and review the work conducted by separate teams known as SATSLab Planning Teams (See SATSLab Planning Team below). -- Team Composition: NASA GAPO will appoint membership on the SATS Demonstration Technical Team that will include the Leaders from each of the selected SATSLab Planning Teams, and participants the NASA researcher community, the FAA, and as appropriate, other AGATE Alliance members (JSR 5.02.2). -- Team Leadership: NASA GAPO will appoint the SATS Demonstration Technical Team Leader, who will represent GAPO in providing oversight and direction in implementing the Government objectives (JSR Article 5.02.3). Each of the SATSLab Planning Team Leaders will coordinate with their Government counterparts in conducting the SATS demonstration planning. SATSLab Planning Teams -- A minimum of two SATSLab Planning teams will be selected to develop a set of flight demonstrations to showcase SATS operational capabilities in their respective states or regions in FY05 as well as conduct systems assessment based on their flight missions which address performance of an evolving NAS. Each SATSLab planning team selected shall consist of a Lead Organization with supporting partners as required. The Lead Organization of each SATSLab planning team selected, who will be required to be, as a minimum, an AGATE Alliance Supporting Member, shall be responsible for reporting all financial and technical information required by the NASA GAPO. -Team Composition: Composition of the SATS demonstration planning teams shall include the expertise necessary to plan and execute potential SATS flight demonstrations. At a minimum, each team shall include at least one partner representing: (1) state aviation authorities, (2) professional systems engineering, (3) airframe manufacturers, (4) suppliers of communication, navigation and surveillance hardware & software and (5) sample user group, i.e., timeshare company, package delivery or corporate user. Additional team members may include transportation studies professionals, simulation companies, and related air & ground infrastructure providers. -Team Leadership: The Lead Organization of each SATSLab Planning Team shall designate a Team Leader, who shall be responsible as that SATSLab Planning Team's overall project manager. The government partners anticipate that either an industry or university organization may perform as Team Leader. The teams shall be structured to clearly identify primary performing organizations versus supporting or advisory organizations. The primary performing organizations shall be structured into a core team that can meet with Government counterparts that will undertake parallel SATS demonstration planning. In addition, any delegation of project management functions by the Team Leader shall be clearly defined. -Team Operations: Each SATSLab Planning Team will report to the SATS Demonstration Technical Team Leader. The Leader, representing the GAPO, will be responsible for resolution of technical and work coordination issues. The SATSLab Planning Teams will closely collaborate with existing Government-led research teams. The Leader for each of the SATSLab Planning Teams will determine the level and frequency of the collaborations in coordination with the Demonstration Technical Team Leader acting on behalf of NASA GAPO. Each proposal shall indicate planned areas of collaboration with the Federal Government partners. -Team Methods and Results: It is the Federal Government's intent to publicly disclose all proposals, plans and reports, specifically, at the end of this planning activity period, the teams are expected to share methodologies, assumptions and results with all current and future partners of the SATS Program. Any planned use of proprietary knowledge/methods must be disclosed upfront in the proposal submitted in response to this competitive task announcement. Planning Review Board -- An independent Planning Review Board (PRB) appointed by NASA GAPO will be chartered to provide strategic oversight and review of the work conducted by the SATSLab Planning Teams, including methodologies and technology assumptions, through the SATS Demonstration Technical Team. The PRB will provide findings and recommendation to the GAPO Manager. At least three progress briefings to the PRB will be held during the year's activities. The SATS Demonstration Technical Team Chair will be responsible for the coordination of these briefings. The Planning Review Board shall be comprised of OEM airframe manufacturers, air/ground systems and infrastructure vendors and transportation service providers who are AGATE Members. SATSLab Planning Team's AGATE Alliance Membership Eligibility Requirements -- Any organization that can meet the AGATE membership requirements as a Supporting Member shall be eligible to become the Lead Organization for a SATSLab Planning Team (Article 4.04(iii)). It is not required that the other partners of a SATSLab Planning Team become members of the AGATE Alliance. Membership is not limited to current AGATE Alliance members. New members to the AGATE Alliance are required to complete the membership qualification and enrollment process. Information on the process is available from the AGATE Alliance Association, Inc. (AAAI) (TEL: 757-766-7512). The selected SATSLab Planning Teams must be AGATE Alliance members prior to signing the AGATE JSRA Small Aircraft Transportation Systems Demonstration Planning Task Agreement. Tasks -- The planned tasks for systems studies and flight planning to be completed in the May 2001- April 2002 Project Year are outlined below. The outputs of the tasks are expected to be analytical models and reports that will be used by the government for further investments in its SATS Program. The government partner does not anticipate that any task will produce commercial products. Resource Matching -- While there is no requirement for the selected SATSLab Planning Team members to provide resources to match the Government, resource contribution will be considered as a competitive factor for evaluation purposes. If resource contributions are provided, the Government will require resource matching reporting and tracking. Conditions & Deliverables -- Proposals are solicited that address all four tasks described below (see Task details) from a state or regional point-of-view and incorporate a diverse team of state, industry, and university partners with cost-sharing as appropriate. Each proposal may choose to address all four operational capabilities or any subset thereof. For a given operational capability selected, the proposal must scope the work to be completed under each of the four task areas. The systems studies will be undertaken according to methods explained by the competing teams in their respective proposals. The flight plans will be prepared within the boundaries of geographic areas and projected regional partners identified by the teams in their respective proposals. Report deliverables will include a detail of assumptions used for modeling and metrics, including any technology down-selects that bound the analyses. Budget estimates must be broken down by task and operating capabilities. The intent to use proprietary information in the creation of the deliverables must be identified upfront in the proposal submittal. Task Details- Planned 2001-2002 Project Year Tasks from May 1, 2001, through April 30, 2002: Task #1: Flight Demonstration Plans The regional or state demonstration plans must identify a concept of operation and include a set of missions to be flown in FY05. The missions should represent a wide range of potential uses of the operational concept as determined by the proposing team and should cover a wide range of economic, social, and geographic variables. Operational requirements and functional requirements will be derived from the mission set and a functional architecture will be defined to support the technology evaluations and flight experiments throughout the program. Potential airports and aircraft to be used in the flight research must be identified and a clear plan for maintaining safe operations and achieving FAA approvals must be included. The flight demonstration plans, which must be completed by September 2001, shall include a Missions Scenario Plan, Operational Requirements Document, Functional Requirements Document, and a Preliminary Safety Hazards Analysis Report. Task #2: Preliminary Technology Investments Technology investments critical to the flight demonstrations should be initiated to ensure that airport, simulation, and flight support infrastructures are in place for the FY03 flight experiments and FY05 SATS Demonstrations. For example, airport database development, flight deck design, software algorithms for communications, air traffic management and/or cockpit automation are all appropriate activities among others to be proposed during the next 12 months. The proposal must identify each technology investment need that will be undertaken and the proposed cost share for those activities along with a preliminary set of milestones & deliverables. The Federal Government will not be using the selected preliminary technology investments to make early programmatic technology down-selects, but it intends to use these technology investments to explore a preliminary set of technology options prior to the SATS Program technology down-selects to be conduct in FY03. A final plan for early technology investments through April 30, 2002 along with specific milestones, budgets, and deliverables will be due by October 2001. Task #3: Systems Analyses SATS by definition is a transportation system and so analyses that begin to quantify the systems level benefits of SATS are needed early on in the program. Metrics that define performance in terms of time, mobility, accessibility, capacity, safety, and cost must be identified and used to conduct the analyses which will help to establish the basis for future transportation investments in the US. Developing the analysis tools, the metrics, and planning the studies will be the focus of the initial work, however some systems-level assessments will be needed up front to help guide the study plans. The establishment of a baseline system assessment will be critical to measuring future progress towards the program goals. For each state or regional proposal, a baseline system assessment and metrics definition must be completed by December 2001. In addition, each proposal must include a description of each systems study to be completed by April 30, 2002, along with a budget, schedule of milestones, and clearly defined deliverables for each study. A copy of any assessment model developed will be provided along with the assessment reports as part of the final deliverable in April 2002. Task #4: Systems Engineering Plan Standard systems engineering practices must be an integral part of each proposal. By November 2001, each team must develop and deliver a written report on their systems engineering plan for the FY05 SATS Demonstrations. Each plan must address the establishment of requirements, a biennial assessment and review process (FY03 and FY05), configuration management data requirements for FAA use and analysis, and final documentation of the project results. Summary of Deliverables September 2001 Draft FY05 SATSLab Demonstration Plan October 2001 Technology Investment Plan thru April 30, 2002 November 2001 Systems Engineering Plan December 2001 State or regional baseline assessments of air transportation April 2002 Final Reports including: -- Revised FY05 SATSLab Demonstration Plan -- State or Regional Air Transportation Systems Assessments -- Preliminary Technology Investment Performance Reports Schedule -- The following key dates are scheduled for implementation of the 2001 Project Year plan: April 9, 2001 Disseminate Competitive Task Notice (CTN) April 30, 2001 Deadline for submittal of SATSLab Planning Team Proposals May 7, 2001 Announcement of selected SATSLab Planning Teams May 21, 2001 Complete negotiations with selected SATSLab Planning Teams May 29, 2001 Release of government funding Proposals are limited to 20 pages, single-spaced, single-sided, 12-point font, and one-inch boarders. Eight (8) copies of proposals along with an electronic version on disk (PC-formatted zip) shall be submitted to the General Aviation Program Office, NASA Langley Research Center, 6 Taylor Street, Hampton, Virginia 23681 with a postmarked date of April 27, 2001. If you have CTN process questions, please contact: Gaudy M. Bezos-O'Connor at g.m.bezos-oconnor@larc.nasa.gov or 757-864-5083. The exact format for the proposals is not specified; proposals must provide information for use by evaluators in a form that is readily interpretable as related to the Evaluation Criteria. Proposals not in compliance with these requirements will be returned unevaluated. Non-selected SATSLab Planning Team Lead Organizations -- In the event a SATSLab Planning Team's proposal is not selected, the Lead Organization of that SATSLab Planning team, as a member of the AGATE Alliance, has the option to negotiate with one or more of the selected winning teams for participation. Reports- Intellectual Property Classification and Use -- All SATSLab Planning Team reports will be classified as AGATE Outputs which have been generated by the use of Government-only resources. The Government will use its authority to release these reports into the public domain upon completion. This release will be accomplished by removal of the AGATE restriction requirements under the Government's authority as the only party providing funds to the SATSLab Planning Teams. The AGATE Output reports from the SATSLab Planning Teams shall not contain proprietary prototype design data or other proprietary data. In the event that an AGATE Output contains such data, the Government shall not consider the report approved in final form and will withhold appropriate milestone payments until such proprietary data is removed from the report or proprietary restrictions have been removed. Government Funds -- The use of government funds by the planning teams is contemplated to include the following: -- support of academic and professional research staff -- development of qualitative and quantitative models -- field studies to identify possible experimental and demonstration flight locations -- preliminary technology investments -- record keeping and reporting -- travel and meeting related expenses In addition, use of funds is permissible for other purposes to the extent provided for under the financial procedures and allowable expenses attachment of the AGATE JSR Agreement. (Attachment 12) Task Awards -- The government anticipates that two or more awards may be given for the Small Aircraft Transportation System Demonstration Planning Project. The government may select and fund partial proposals at its discretion. The government anticipates a fixed funding award structure. Funding will be based on the number of awards made, with a maximum of $6M available in total federal government funding (FY 01: $2M, FY02: $4M). Fiscal year 2002 funding is contingent on government appropriations authority. The task award period begins in May of 2001 and will conclude in April 2002. The awards will be issued upon successful negotiation of detailed task plans, milestones and deliverables between the NASA General Aviation Program office and the Lead Organization of each SATSLab Planning Team. Government CTN Evaluation Team -- The following organizations shall be represented on the Government Evaluation Team: o NASA -- SATS Technical Planning Team (3 persons) -- SATS Alliance Partnership Design Team (1 person) -- General Aviation Programs Office-Program Analysis (1 person) o FAA (1 person) This team shall evaluate, score, and rank the proposals and provide their recommendation for selection of SATSLab Planning Teams to the Manager of the NASA General Aviation Programs Office. Proposal Evaluation Criteria -- The proposals will be evaluated and ranked according to the following criteria: Technical Criteria 1. Evidence of competency in planning and execution of multiple aircraft flight experiments and demonstrations. 2. Level of knowledge regarding FAA policies, procedures and National Airspace System management

Web Link

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Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010411/SPMSC005.HTM (D-099 SN50I748)