Bio
Bill Buck is a Research Aerospace Engineer with the Crew Systems and Aviation Operations Branch at NASA Langley Research Center with more than 27 years of project design and engineering experience in diverse government and industry environments supporting innovative component and product technologies. Bill believes that ideas and concepts are best supported and proved with data; lots of data. Past experiences in simulation and flight testing with the NASA Weather Accident Prevention (WxAP) project illustrated the benefit of the flight data collected and its use beyond just the current program it supported for future flight data analyses.
Bill has supported the development of a turbulence auto-pilot reporting system, the enhanced turbulence radar hazard table development and certification for industry, and the development of a wake vortex hazard metric identification and its characterization. Most recently, Bill led the engineering development and application of a wake vortex data screening utility that has been successfully integrated within a third party airline flight data processor to analyze autonomously more than 380,000 full-flights for multiple commercial aircraft types. Since October 2018, Bill has supported the testing and checkout of the Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) software under the Airspace Technology Demonstration (ATD-3) Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) subproject, NASA’s partnership on the Boeing ecoDemonstrator 2019 flights under the Airspace Operations Safety Program’s (AOSP) Air Traffic Management – Exploration (ATM-X) project, and ATM-X’s Increasing Diverse Operations (IDO) subproject in the development of an automation process to create Trajectory-Based Operations aircraft scenarios from FAA SWIM recorded data. Most recently, Mr. Buck has led the development of small-UAS Operations Center at NASA Langley to support training, simulation research, and flight operations for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) High Density Vertiplex (HDV) subproject and supported a Human Factors Assessment Study for human autonomy teaming research. In addition to his extensive aircraft turbulence mitigation and project management experience, Bill is a Class B certified chain saw and crosscut sawyer for the US Forest Service.
Bill holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering in flight dynamics and control from Old Dominion University.
Selected Publications
1. Buck, B. K. and Underwood, M. C. “Using Recorded Airspace Traffic Data to Create Simulation Scenarios for Trajectory-Based Operations,” 21st AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference, Washington D.C., 2021.
2. Buck, B. K., Politowicz, M. S., Chancey, E. T., and Underwood, M. C., “Human-Centered Design Process for a Remote Vehicle Operations Center: Promoting Shared Situation Awareness,” to be published in Ergonomics in Design: The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications, 2021.
3. Buck, B. K., Barney, T. L., Underwood, M. C., and Chartrand, R. C., “Design and Implementation of a Scenario Development Process for a 2040 Trajectory-Based Operations Simulation,” NASA/TM-2020-5006526, Hampton, VA, 2020.
4. Barney T. L., Ballard, K. M., Buck, B. K., Underwood, M. C., and Chartrand, R. C., “Simulation of a Representative Future Trajectory-Based Operations Environment,” NASA/TM–2020-5006885, Hampton, VA, 2020.
5. Barney, T. L., Underwood, M. C., Buck, B. K., “Simulation and Flight Test Environments for the TASAR Traffic Aware Planner,” in AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference, Dallas, TX, 2019.
6. Bowles, R. L. and Buck, B. K. “A Methodology for Determining Statistical Performance Compliance for Airborne Doppler Radar with Forward-Looking Turbulence Detection Capability,” NASA Contractor Report Series, NASA/CR-2009-215769/Corrected Copy, Hampton, VA, 2009.
7. Prince, J. B., Buck, B. K., Robinson, P. A., and Ryan, T., “In-Service Evaluation of the Turbulence Auto-PIREP System and Enhanced Turbulence Radar Technologies,” NASA Contractor Report Series, NASA/CR-2007-214887, Hampton, VA, 2007.
8. Buck, B. K. and Newman, B. A., “Aircraft Acceleration Prediction Due to Atmospheric Disturbances with Flight Data Validation,” AIAA Journal of Aircraft, Volume 43, No. 1, 2006.
9. Buck, B. K., Bowles, R. L., and Newman, B. A., “Aircraft Acceleration Prediction with Flight Data Validation Due to Atmospheric Disturbances,” 43rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, AIAA-2005-0232, Reno, NV, 2005.
10. Buck, B. K., Bowles, R. L., and Newman, B. A., “Aircraft Acceleration Prediction Due To Atmospheric Disturbances With Flight Data Validation,” AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference and Exhibit, AIAA-2004-4826, Providence, RI, 2004.
11. Buck, B. K. and Velotas, S. G., “Development of an Aircraft Approach & Departure Atmospheric Profile Generation Algorithm,” NASA Contractor Report Series, NASA/CR-2004-213236, Hampton, VA, 2004.
12. Buck, B. K., Prediction of Rigid Body Aircraft Acceleration Response Due to Atmospheric Disturbances, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 2004.
13. Robinson, P. A. and Buck, B. K., “Optimization of the NCAR In Situ Turbulence Measurement Algorithm,” 38th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, AIAA-2000-0492, Reno, NV, 2000.
Awards and Honors
2019 – NASA Group Achievement Award – Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) NASA / Alaska Airlines / Industry Team
2019 – NASA Langley Transformer of the Year, Partnership Category – Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) Team