In the early 1990s the FAA and NASA joined their efforts to address the issue of congestion in our National Airspace System and national and regional airports. NASA began researching technology that would move passenger air transportation out of the 50 or so congested airports to the 18,000 private and public airports and airstrips in the US. In 2001, NASA released a new light jet engine that will significantly reduce the direct operating costs of a light jet. Air-Taxi companies will be able to offer point to point air travel on short haul routes for 25% of the costs they are currently charging. Seven aircraft manufacturers are currently designing and building Very Light Jets (also known as VLJs and Microjets). Together they claim to have obtained orders in excess of 3,000 aircraft. Three manufacturers are now in the lead: Eclipse Aviation - Manufactures the Eclipse 500 Adam Aircraft Industries - Manufactures the Adam 700 and Adam 500 Cessna Aircraft Company- Manufactures the Cessna Mustang Light engine technology is not the only effort bearing fruit. Consider infrastructure: Out of the 5400 public airports only 1300 are equipped with low visibility ILS, and there are ones where it will just be impossible to operate an ILS. In response to that, the FAA and AOPA are promoting the WAAS. Currently, two manufacturers of General Aviation avionics - UPSAT and Chelton - have WAAS-certified receivers that can be used for "sole-source" IFR navigation, meaning no other navigation systems are required on the aircraft. For more information about WAAS visit the FAA web site by following this link. To see NASA's Technology Enterprise Goals for General Aviation 1997-2025, click here. To learn more about NASA's Small Aircraft Propulsion systems, click here.
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