NASA advances tests to integrate remotely piloted aircraft and air taxis into shared airspace
NASA and its partners have completed a new flight test in California aimed at bringing remotely piloted aircraft, including future air taxis, closer to routine operations in urban airspace. The effort targets a central industry problem: how to expand low-altitude flight for passengers and cargo without overloading air traffic controllers or weakening safety in the national airspace system.
During the Aug. 21 test in Hollister, California, Wisk Aero flew a Bell 206 helicopter while NASA and Collins Aerospace evaluated a ground-based radar system developed by Collins. The radar provides aircraft location data that could support future remotely piloted operations by helping aircraft detect and avoid nearby traffic. Researchers from NASA, Wisk, and Collins also used the test to validate data exchange between teams operating in different locations, a capability seen as essential if remotely piloted aircraft are to function reliably in shared airspace. The work builds on a previous flight test NASA conducted in November 2024 with Reliable Robotics and Collins Aerospace.
NASA said initial analysis showed the Collins radar actively and accurately monitored the surrounding airspace during the flight. The system also successfully transmitted surveillance data to NASA’s Mission Visualization Research Command Center at Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The three organizations will continue reviewing the results to better understand both radar performance and the robustness of cross-site data sharing before moving into future remotely piloted flight tests under NASA’s Air Traffic Management eXploration project, or ATM-X.
The broader campaign is designed to identify the infrastructure and operational technologies the Federal Aviation Administration would need to safely integrate drones and electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft into U.S. airspace. That includes systems that allow aircraft to remain aware of nearby traffic even when they are flown remotely. For industry, the payoff could be significant. Remotely piloted eVTOL aircraft are being positioned as a way to move people and goods more efficiently in dense urban areas, where road congestion raises costs and limits mobility. Supporters also argue the model could expand access to transportation and delivery services by lowering operating barriers over time.
NASA said it will continue working with Wisk on emerging eVTOL technologies and will gather more data on vehicle performance using helicopter flights as surrogates for eVTOL operations. Those tests are intended to give regulators and developers a clearer picture of how advanced aircraft can safely coexist with existing traffic. If the results continue to hold, the work could become a key building block for future air taxi and cargo networks, with direct implications for how cities manage short-range transportation in the years ahead.