NASA Turns to Blockchain as Autonomous Flight Raises Security Risks

The work stems from a growing concern inside aviation and aerospace circles. As skies become more crowded with drones, air taxis, and eventually fully autonomous aircraft, the data keeping them coordinated is becoming just as critical as engines or radar. A single corrupted data stream, spoofed GPS signal, or hijacked communication link could ripple across an entire airspace network.

To address that risk, engineers at NASA are exploring whether blockchain-style systems can serve as a new foundation for air traffic security.

Turning flight data into a shared truth

The recent test took place at the Ames Research Center, but the concept goes far beyond one lab or one drone. Instead of storing flight data in a central system that must be constantly protected, the experiment distributed information across multiple synchronized nodes.

During a live flight using an Alta-X drone, standard aviation data – position, timing, telemetry, and operational details – was recorded simultaneously across this decentralized network. Any update had to be confirmed by the system as a whole before being accepted. If one node delivered altered or suspicious data, it was automatically rejected by the rest.

In practical terms, this means an attacker would need to compromise many systems at once to change flight information without detection, rather than exploiting a single weak entry point.