The FAA may be close to deciding who will build its envisioned Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) system, an artificial intelligence-based platform that could predict airspace conditions months into the future in order to help airlines better plan for demand.
The Air Current, an online aviation news service, on Saturday reported that Air Space Intelligence (ASI)—which claims its Flyways AI system already manages more than 40 percent of U.S. air traffic—is the likely recipient of the contract, citing “multiple people familiar with the selection.” The sources said the award could still change, but an FAA spokesperson said to expect an announcement “soon.”
Frank Matus, the director of uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) integration for Thales—another reported SMART bidder—told FLYING in April that the FAA envisions the system predicting weather, traffic, and other conditions up to six months in advance. Thales claims its TopSky air traffic management system oversees 40 percent of traffic worldwide, not just in the U.S.
AI titan Palantir is the third reported bidder for SMART, which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in April said will fall under the DOT’s Brand New Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS) project. Congress last year allocated $12.5 billion to BNATCS, but Duffy is asking for about $20 billion more to fund SMART and other initiatives.
“It’s gonna take us time to develop [SMART], deploy it, debug it, train on it,” Duffy said. “So getting that software started now, hopefully, as our build completes with all of the infrastructure, we’ll have the technology of the software ready to meet up in two and a half years.”
FAA’s Decision
Duffy and other officials view SMART as a crucial software layer for a modernized ATC system, which will also include thousands of new radars, radios, voice switches, and other equipment funded by the BNATCS effort.
The FAA picking ASI—which The Air Current reports had only about 150 employees in April—over Palantir or Thales would be like David beating Goliath.
But as that parable illustrates, size is not everything. Though it lacks the financial war chests of the other SMART bidders, ASI has found a niche in airspace optimization, ingratiating itself with government and logistics customers and carriers such as Alaska Airlines.
Like SMART, ASI’s Flyways platform is predictive, giving airlines, ATCs, and flight dispatch teams a view eight-plus hours into the future. It synchronizes traffic management across operators, air route traffic control centers (ARTCCs), and other FAA facilities.
The platform’s machine learning models are fed by more than 100 data links—including ADS-B and weather data—to produce “4D” twins of the national airspace system, the fourth dimension being time. It can replay historical activity as if it were happening live or simulate future traffic, weather, surface conditions, and other metrics.
In April, ASI partnered with electric air taxi manufacturer Joby Aviation to study how electric and other novel aircraft could be integrated into air traffic management systems.
What SMART Would Do
The FAA so far has only provided a teaser of what SMART could accomplish.
Administrator Bryan Bedford said in April that the system would translate to lower fuel burden, less aircraft downtime, shorter block times, and faster flights. He said that vendors had already created “true digital twins” of the entire NAS.
“The way we operate the airspace today adds risk to this system, because we’re putting all of these aircraft in the same traffic lanes,” Bedford said. “It’s like Los Angeles gridlock up there…We can actually structure and organize this traffic before [airlines] actually publish schedules and sell tickets.”
Matus and Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), both said the platform is solely for planning purposes and will not separate aircraft. The idea is to better anticipate delays, cancellations, scheduling conflicts, and other disruptions.
“For 27 years of my career, this is the first time I’ve ever seen an investment like this,” Daniels said.
Notably, the DOT has yet to actually allocate funding for SMART. As Duffy said in April, officials are seeking billions more in congressional funding to support the project. Taxpayers can track progress on the ATC modernization effort using a website the FAA launched in March.