Flight Critical Systems Research

NASA Langley Research Center established this master IDIQ for basic and applied research in flight-critical systems supporting NextGen, trans-atmospheric flight, and extra-terrestrial planetary operations, with the ordering period closed as of July 14, 2016. The vehicle is no longer active for new task orders.

The research portfolio spans safety-critical aviation systems, crew operations, situation awareness, air traffic control, system safety assurance, design integrity, and flight-critical systems analysis. Task orders have funded work on interval management operations, adaptive control certification, assurance case methodologies, spatial disorientation mitigation, synthetic and enhanced vision systems, conflict detection and resolution, software health management, and formal methods infusion into avionics development. The most substantial single award—$11.1 million to Boeing for ATD-1 avionics development and flight-test integration—represents a systems development effort rather than pure research.

Honeywell International Inc. dominated the vehicle with 15 task orders worth $5.3 million combined potential value. Boeing held two large awards worth $11.4 million and five smaller orders totaling $3.8 million. Booz Allen Hamilton, Saab Inc., and a long tail of smaller contractors rounded out the field. Nearly 99 percent of the $24.6 million combined potential value across 37 task orders has been obligated, with the final award issued in June 2016.

All task orders were unrestricted competition with no set-asides. NASA Langley Research Center served as the sole customer. Task orders typically carried cost-plus-fixed-fee pricing with individual ceilings ranging from under $70,000 to over $11 million, with most research tasks in the $150,000 to $450,000 range. Ordering momentum declined sharply in the vehicle's final years—from six orders annually in 2012–2013 to just one in 2016—signaling wind-down of the vehicle.

NASA Langleys Research Directorate (RD) conducts research and develops advanced technology to support the research and technology objectives of NASAs Aeronautics Research Mission, Human Exploration and Operations Mission, Space Technology Program, and Science Mission. Flight Critical Systems Research addresses aviation systems technology gaps that are exposed by the operational challenges of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), trans-atmospheric flight, and extra-terrestrial planetary flight. Such operations are characterized by increasing complexity and innerconnectivity; distributed control; system of systems, continuous vehicle health management; remote-piloting and autonomy (e.g., unmanned aircraft systems operations); blurring of system boundaries; escalating and ubiquitous automation and computing; and increasing verification, validation, and certification challenges. The Contractor shall conduct basic and applied research, technology development, and systems analyses in airborne and ground-based systems critical to flight safety, management, and control in the areas of crew systems and aviation operations, situation awareness air traffic control (ATC), requirements for human subject Experimentation, Safety-Critical Aviation Systems, Design Integrity, System safety assurance, operational integrity, and flight critical systems analysis and assessment.