The NEO Spiral II Program: AN FAA/industry exploration of unmanned aircraft system integration in the National Airspace System

The Network Enabled Operations (NEO) Spiral II Program is a collaborative effort that brings the FAA and a Boeing-led industry team of 14 partner companies and organizations together to explore concepts that will help to advance the operation of future unmanned aircraft system's (UAS's) integration in the National Airspace System (NAS): (1) Enhanced FAA intra-agency information sharing using capabilities in a distributed Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based SWIM environment that can be extended to include other agency systems. (2) Enhanced collaboration and information flows via the sharing of aircraft intent using Aircraft Intent Description Language (AIDL) to enhance aircraft trajectory prediction (i.e., trajectory based operations) capabilities, including a broader sharing of four dimensional trajectories (4DTs) across ground automation systems. (3) The use of these tools in advancing the safety case for UAS operations in the NAS. (4) Dynamic airspace protection using Airspace Volumes of Interest (AVOIs). (5) Exploring enhanced net-centric procedures and information sharing approaches for UAS loss of control link eventualities.