What do Envoy, NASA, and SpaceX have in common? A lot more than you’d think.
Over the last year, Envoy has partnered with the FAA, NASA, SpaceX and other Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex based airlines on two separate initiatives to improve air travel efficiency and sustainability, both of which had successful outcomes.
Representing Envoy, Dispatch Technical and Systems Development Manager, Ken Vogt, took a moment to share with us an overview of these partnerships and recap of what we achieved together.
Testing NASA’s ATD-2
In a significant breakthrough for the aviation industry, NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) system has emerged as a game changer, enhancing the efficiency of surface flight operations at some of the busiest airports. This innovative system focuses on time-based metering of departures, aiming to reduce long departure queues, conserve fuel, cut emissions, and optimize the use of limited airport runways and taxiways. But how did it come to be?
Envoy, alongside other DFW metroplex based airlines, participated in the testing and evaluation of the ATD-2 System. Through testing this new system, Envoy alone saved up to 1,430 pounds of fuel, leading to a reduction of 3,500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. To put this into perspective, it’s equivalent to planting 42 urban trees and helped us to avoid more than 132 hours of passenger flight delays!
The cumulative efforts across ATD-2 partners resulted in astonishing figures: 1,101,768 gallons of fuel saved, a reduction of 23,211,172 pounds of CO2 emissions, and substantial time and cost savings for the airlines overall.
“Envoy’s involvement in the ATD-2 testing was not a random occurrence – NASA selected Envoy based on prior engagements with the FAA RAIM FAR Working Group,” shared Ken. “This group played a crucial role in formulating Federal Regulations on Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring, assessing the integrity of GPS signals for aircraft navigation.”
Envoy 🤝 SpaceX
The success story doesn’t end with ATD-2; Envoy and SpaceX also recently joined forces in an Information Sharing Symposium. This event focused on sharing best practices, with SpaceX seeking Envoy’s expertise in establishing and refining Mission Control Protocols for its Revenue Flight Operations.
Collaboration is key
As one of the world’s largest regional airlines and an important part of American Airlines Group (AAG), Envoy is committed to supporting the aerospace industry as a whole.
From NASA to SpaceX and beyond, partnerships such as these enable us to reduce our environmental impact, improve the customer experience, share and develop best practices and ensure that aviation continues to be an amazing industry for our colleagues and customers.
Thank you to Ken and the Envoy System Operations Control (SOC) team who are developing these partnerships, and to everyone who supplied information used in this article.
Way to go, team Envoy!