WASHINGTON: NASA researchers are testing a computer software that can improve flight efficiency, decrease noise and reduce environmental impacts of aircraft, especially on communities around airports.

Known as ASTAR, or Airborne Spacing for Terminal Arrival Routes, the software is designed to give pilots specific speed information and guidance so that planes can be more precisely spaced, enabling pilots to fly a "follow the leader" approach to their destination airport.

This type of approach would minimize flight path deviations, allow more efficient use of existing airspace and possibly reduce noise over communities surrounding airports - all of which could lead to reductions in commercial flight delays, researchers said.

The software is being tested on the Boeing ecoDemonstrator 787 Test Airplane as part of The Boeing Company's ecoDemonstrator Programme, a multi-year effort that aims to identify and accelerate the development and testing of new technologies and methods that can potentially reduce the environmental impacts of aviation.

"ASTAR represents the first of several inventive technologies NASA's aeronautical innovators are working on that will be tested with the help of the ecoDemonstrator test airplanes," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

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