Table of Contents - HUNAGI

TAIGA
Traffic and Atmospheric Information for General Aviation
Alaska offers a combination of difficult flying conditions and a heavy dependence upon
aviation to support its way of life. The result is a sobering set of statistics describing a
disproportionate number of aviation accidents and fatalities compared to the lower 48 states.
TAIGA is a joint venture between NASA Ames Research Center and the State of Alaska to
help pilots make better decisions before and during flight. We will accomplish this by
building a system customized to the needs of Alaskan flights. This involves building
communication systems, collecting appropriate data, delivering data to the cockpit, and
visualizing that data in a useful way. For this last goal, we will use the Android platform and
NASA World Wind. The data in question will include weather, traffic, and volcanic activity
amongst others.
We have developed an initial desktop
demonstration of the visualization to
appear on an Android tablet. Work
has begun porting World Wind to the
Android platform.
The code resulting from this work
will be made available as open
source. It is hoped this will spur
further Android/World Wind projects
in the future.
The most dangerous work site in Alaska is a
small plane and the fatality rate for Alaska
pilots (General Aviation & Commercial)
is five times greater than the rate for all
US pilots.
- Alaska Aviation Safety Project citing FAA statistics
To reduce occupational fatalities resulting
from aircraft crashes in the state, safety
interventions should focus on providing
weather and other flight information to
increase pilots’ situational awareness… and
expanding the infrastructure used by pilots
to fly by instruments.
- CDC report on Alaskan occupational fatalities
Contact Joseph.L.Rios@nasa.gov for more information