NASA's new technology helps more air planes land on same runway, managing time interval between each aircraft arrival

NASA is working with its partners on a new traffic control (ATC) technology. The technology will provide safe increase in the number of air planes that can land on the same runway at busy airports. The technology will work by precisely managing the time or interval, between each aircraft's arrival.

The technology is called Flight Deck Interval Management, or FIM. It will also increase chances of your flights -- connecting or otherwise -- arriving on time, the US space agency said in a statement on Monday.

"FIM allows controllers to deliver the aircraft more precisely and more predictably, which is a huge advantage that helps the airlines and airport operators more efficiently manage air traffic to minimize delays," said William Johnson from NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia.

FIM is part of NASA's Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration-1- or ATD-1. It is a coordinated effort involving NASA,  the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and industry that develops and examines new technologies and processes related to aircraft scheduling and airport arrivals.

A field demonstration of FIM involving NASA, the FAA and industry will be conducted in early 2017 over Washington State, the statement added.

Currently, the air traffic technology and processes facilitate prediction of arrival times to within a minute. But FIM will expectedly enable the controllers and the airport to bank on aircraft arriving within five to ten seconds of a predicted time.

The cockpit-based prototype FIM system combines NASA-developed software with commercially available off-the-shelf hardware and connects the system to the aircraft's onboard information and navigation systems.