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Aerospace

Flight of fancy?

In-Depth

As NASA prepares to trial its Small Aircraft Transportation System, is this the first step towards the Hollywood vision of 'flying cars' and 'highways in the sky'?

In a few months' time a small regional airport in the US will host an event that may one day be viewed as one of the most significant milestones in aviation history. From 5 to 7 June engineers, scientists and members of the public will gather at Danville Airfield in Virginia to witness a demonstration of NASA's Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS).

With the media spotlight currently focused on the vast proportions of the Airbus A380, the five-year, $69m (£37m) SATS project has a very different vision of aviation's future — a future in which people use small, low-cost single-pilot jets to fly in and out of tiny, untowered airfields.

The SATS team, led by NASA but with input from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Consortium for Aviation Mobility (NCAM), set out to develop some of the key technologies required for a 'highway in the sky' system.

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