Volume 8, Number 5     September/October 2000       

NASA Benefits from Small Business Programs

NASA mission programs have benefited greatly from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs since they were founded. Designed to provide increased opportunities for small businesses, the programs are also providing extensive opportunities for NASA. As the SBIR/STTR programs have matured, NASA programs have begun to take advantage of the benefits provided by SBIR/STTR.

The General Aviation (GA) revitalization, embodied with the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) consortium, is one of the programs that has used SBIR/STTR successfully. SBIR/STTR funding for GA projects has exceeded $30 million since 1993, with funds going directly to small businesses working on GA-specified problems, subtopics in the SBIR and STTR solicitations. Results for NASA, small business and general aviation have been substantial.

The AGATE program is made up of more than 70 members from industry, universities, the Federal Aviation Administration and other government agencies. It was founded to help revitalize the troubled aviation industry by developing affordable new technologies and advocating new standards and certification methods for next-generation, single-pilot, and near all-weather, light aircraft.

Companies that won Phase II SBIR contracts working toward the revitalization effort automatically became part of AGATE, leading to easier paths to developing business relationships. The GA/AGATE programs’ use of SBIR/STTR has led to impressive results. One of the clearest examples of both the benefits of SBIR/STTR and the AGATE consortium is Cirrus Design’s SR20 aircraft.

	AGATE concept cockpit for future small aircraft.

The SR20 is a four-seat single-engine airplane designed with speed, innovation, comfort and safety in mind. The company currently has over 500 confirmed orders for the SR20 plane and production has been consistently ramping up over the last year.

The SR20 is not just an example of AGATE benefits, but also the SBIR/STTR program’s contribution to AGATE's evolving success in reviving general aviation as a viable industry in the United States. Cirrus Design Corp. itself was awarded two SBIR phase II contracts that played into the development of this plane, particularly with respect to innovative manufacturing techniques. In addition, the innovations of several other SBIR companies are integral parts of the plane, included in the impressive list of new technologies.

The SR20 includes as standard equipment an airplane emergency recovery parachute that was developed by Ballistic Recovery System (BRS) in part through an SBIR contract BRS had with the Langley Research Center. The SR20 parachute is known as CAPS-the Cirrus

Airframe Parachute System. BRS has a million-dollar contract with Cirrus to supply the parachutes for the SR20.

The BRS parachute is also used in over 25 experimental category small airplanes, providing BRS with approximately $1 million in revenue per year. More importantly, the BRS system is a proven lifesaver. BRS has over 100 stories from pilots who have survived crashes because they had a BRS parachute system in their aircraft.

ARNAV is another NASA SBIR company that has its technology incorporated into the SR20 plane. Through its SBIR project, entitled “Affordable Electronic Weather Reporting System for General Aviation Pilots,” ARNAV developed an innovative “weather in the cockpit” technology. This is a low-cost data link that provides weather information graphically to the cockpit. ARNAV has since expanded the application and has developed a cockpit multi-function display (MFD) which includes the “weather in the cockpit” function.

ARNAV’s MFD has been incorporated into the SR20 avionics system. ARNAV has also applied this technology to other high profile efforts. For the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Operation Helistar, an AGATE-based effort, required that all aircraft flying over the Games be equipped with ARNAV's data link. The link provided both weather and traffic information graphically to each cockpit. The AGATE ground control station had two-way text messaging capability with the aircraft as well, thus further increasing the safety of the many planes and helicopters over Atlanta.

In 1999, ARNAV continued to expand the availability of up-to-the-minute weather data to the general aviation community when it was awarded a five-year Flight Information System (FIS) contract with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Under the contract, ARNAV will receive two nationwide data link frequencies on which to broadcast basic aviation weather reports. FIS is considered fundamental to the National Airspace System architecture modernization program.

The GA/AGATE program’s success is not limited to technologies incorporated into the Cirrus SR20, nor has the SR20 been the only example of SBIR companies partnering (and thus increasing the success of both). Other innovations that are improving the safety, reliability and cost effectiveness of small aircraft include ModWorks’ Human Factors Engineered Ergonomic instrument panel created by the joint forces of ModWorks and Vision Micro Systems. This panel includes Vision Micro System’s Intelligent Digital Engine Monitoring System for small airplanes. This low-cost system reduces pilot’s engine management workload and improves operation safety and reliability. Mod Works’ manufacturing technology, which was developed under the STTR program, is key to the company’s ability to produce the instrument panel at a lower cost.

The instrument panel has received FAA certification and has found a market in the retrofitting of older planes. In addition, Mod Works spun the technology into a different arena when it developed an FAA certified training simulator. The simulator is built with the same type of ergonomic instrument panel that goes into the airplanes-hence its market appeal. Over 250 simulators have been built and shipped in the last couple of years.

Innovative Dynamics Inc. (IDI) has been working on ice protection technology through the SBIR program for several years. IDI has developed a sensor system that assists in the detection of ice build-up as well as in determining if the accreted ice has been shed after system operation. The technology has been licensed to B.F. Goodrich and integrated into its pneumatic de-icers bringing ice detection technology to the general aviation market at an affordable price.

ARNAV's “weather in the cockpit” technology provides weather information graphically to the cockpit of general aviation aircraft

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is also beginning to look to the SBIR/STTR programs to support efforts to develop a Spaceport Technology Center. The Center is seen as becoming a world class resource for the emerging space transportation industry, and is dedicated to developing the necessary technologies that will lay the groundwork for the spaceports of the future.

Spaceport technologies require new techniques, methods, mechanisms and machinery used to process space cargo as well as space vehicles, and technologies to launch and land space vehicles. Discussions and lessons learned from the GA/AGATE team have been assessed and careful consideration has been given to areas best suited to the small business community and the SBIR/STTR programs. KSC is including the SBIR program as one of the strategic resources in its plan for acquiring technologies in support of the Spaceport Technology Center.

Other NASA programs, including the Office of Aerospace Technology’s new Revolutionary Concepts (RevCon) program, are also looking at how they can best utilize the SBIR program to help advance their goals.

The SBIR/STTR program was designed primarily to give opportunities to small businesses to get involved with federal research and development activities. NASA has found that the program also contains opportunities for it as well, and now NASA, and the small businesses involved in its SBIR/STTR program, are reaping the benefits generated by those who took advantage of the opportunities.

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