NASA has provided the FAA with beta air traffic control software that could speed up air travel in the US.
A new computer software tool developed by NASA’s "aeronautical innovators" – the Precision Departure Release Capability, or PDRC – will soon help controllers better determine how long it will take a plane to depart from the terminal and eventually join overhead traffic.
Tests of the PDRC systemconducted during the past few years indicate that it could help fill as much as 80 percent of the slots in the constant overhead stream of air traffic that usually go empty because of timing issues on the ground, NASA said.
It said PRDC is intended to augment existing tools for managing aircraft movement on the ground, as well as the flow of aircraft scheduled for takeoffs, by automating the process timing terminal departures.
