NASA Demonstrates Safer Skies for Future Urban Air Travel

2 min readPreparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA engineer Hanbong Lee demonstrates capabilities to manage busy urban airspace traffic during a recent simulation at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete NASA is helping shape the future of urban air travel with a new simulation that will manage how electric air taxis and drones can successfully operate within busy areas. The demonstration, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley earlier this year, focused on a system called the Strategic Deconfliction Simulation, which helps coordinate flight plans before takeoff, reducing the risk of conflicts in busy urban environments At the event, researchers demonstrated NASA’s Situational Viewer and Demand-Capacity Balancing Monitor, which visualizes air traffic and adjusts flight plans in real time.

The simulation demonstrated traffic scenarios involving drone operations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, testing how preplanned flights could improve congestion and manage the demand and capacity of the airspace – ensuring that all aircraft can operate smoothly even in crowded conditions. Working with industry partners is critical to NASA’s efforts to develop and refine technologies needed for future air mobility. During the simulation, the company, ANRA Technologies, demonstrated its fleet and vertiport management systems, which are designed to support the coordination of multiple aircraft and ground operations.

“Simulating these complex environments supports broader efforts to ensure safe integration of drones and other advanced vehicles into the US airspace,” said Hanbong Lee, engineer at NASA Ames. “By showcasing these capabilities, we’re delivering critical data and lessons learned to support efforts at NASA and industry.” This demonstration is another step toward the NASA team’s plan to hold a technical capability level simulation in 2026.

This upcoming simulation would help shape the development of services aimed at managing aircraft flying in urban areas. The simulation was created through a NASA team from its Air Mobility Pathfinders project, part of the agency’s continuing work to find solutions for safely integrating innovative new aircraft such as air taxis into U.S.

cities and the national airspace. By developing advanced evaluations and simulations, the project supports safe, scalable, and publicly trusted air travel in urban areas, paving the way for a future where air taxis and drones are a safe and reliable part of everyday life.

The project falls under NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program, which works to enable safe and efficient aviation transportation. Share Details Last Updated Dec 09, 2025 Related TermsAmes Research CenterAeronauticsAeronautics Research Mission DirectorateAir Mobility Pathfinders projectAirspace Operations and Safety ProgramGeneral Explore More 5 min read NASA Begins Moon Mission Plume-Surface Interaction Tests Article 6 hours ago 5 min read Painting Galaxy Clusters by Numbers (and Physics) Article 7 hours ago 5 min read New NASA Sensor Goes Hunting for Critical Minerals Article 11 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Missions Humans in Space Climate Change Solar System