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Have you ever been delayed at the airport? Chances are that you have.

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Most of us assume that flight delays are just an unfortunate part of traveling.

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Well, researchers at NASA are working on a program called Aviation Systems Capacity

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that just may make flight delays a thing of the past.

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Our own Jennifer Cortes takes us to NASA Ames to find out more.

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Have you ever been in this situation?

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Long lines at the airport? Your flight's been delayed again.

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Sitting on the runway waiting to take off or circling the airport waiting to land.

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Unfortunately, it seems as if delays and cancellations are becoming a routine part of travel.

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Over the next 20 years, the demand for air travel is expected to double,

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which could make these delay problems much more frequent.

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In fact, by the year 2012, there will be over 1 billion passengers traveling on domestic flights annually.

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But is there anything that can be done about these delays?

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Well, researchers at NASA are working on something called Aviation Systems Capacity,

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which may someday make flight delays a thing of the past.

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There are many factors that affect delays at major airports throughout the country.

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The major one is that there is just an exponential growth in the amount of traffic in the air traffic system.

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And unfortunately, we are just using the old air traffic control system that has been around for years.

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To better understand why some airport delays happen, think about your own rush hour traffic.

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As long as everyone is going the same speed, traffic moves smoothly.

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But if weather is bad or a few cars or trucks slow down, then huge backups can happen.

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That same basic thing is happening in the airport environment.

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Traffic may be running smoothly, but if one plane is delayed because of weather, backups start to occur.

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Unfortunately, if planes are late leaving one airport,

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then those same planes arrive late at other airports, causing further delays.

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NASA's goal is to safely increase the capacity and productivity of national airspace

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by developing revolutionary operation systems and vehicles.

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NASA has been working on three projects.

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And these three projects are aimed at trying to develop the technologies

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that will increase the capacity on the national level.

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The first two projects are the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies Project

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and the Terminal Area Productivity Project.

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Those two combined are looking at technologies that will help reduce the workload

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of both pilots and controllers at major airports.

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In addition to that, NASA is developing an aircraft that will be able to fly

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in and out of major airports without needing the runways.

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Frank, I know that you want to get aircraft in and out of airports faster.

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How are you going to do that?

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Well, Jen, since 70% of all delays in and out of major airports are caused by weather,

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NASA is working on technology that will allow traffic to safely come in and out of these major airports,

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even under bad weather.

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And so in order to do that, NASA is working on a technology called Airborne Information

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for Lateral Spacing, which will provide the pilot the ability to see other traffic

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even during the bad weather times so that they can safely come in and out of these airports.

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So based on doing that, we would be able to increase capacity at major airports.

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And the third element in the capacity program is the Short-Haul Civil Tilt Rotor Project.

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The Civil Tilt Rotor aircraft offers a unique opportunity to alleviate runway congestion at the busiest airports.

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With the advantage of vertical takeoffs and vertical landing,

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tilt rotors don't rely on conventional runways and can bypass ground and air congestion,

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which reduces door-to-door trip times for passengers.

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With trips of less than 500 miles, tilt rotors will reduce the amount of fixed-wing flights,

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which would free up runway space for larger aircraft.

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The benefits of the tilt rotor are that you can take off and land vertically,

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and then you can fly like an airplane.

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So it can fly twice as far and fast as a helicopter,

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and at its destination, the reverse occurs and it lands like a helicopter.

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And the big advantage is you don't need runways.

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And also, you don't even need airports.

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You can fly to small landing areas that we call vertiports,

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and these could be located much closer to where you're going or where you're coming from.

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And therefore, you avoid all of the congestion on the ground and at the airport and in the air.

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That's why I believe the tilt rotor will revolutionize air travel.