IGF::OT::IGF SBIR SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH SPEECH INTERFACE METHODS FOR INCREASINGLY AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE OPERATIONS SOUTHERN AIR AVIATION INC. HAS DEVELOPED A NEXTGEN VOICE ACTIVATED COCKPIT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (VACMS) UNDER PHASE 1 AND PHASE 2 SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATIVE RESEARCH (SBIR) EFFORTS WITH APPLICATIONS FOR FLIGHT PROCEDURES, CONTROL OF AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS, AND FLIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS. FROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX ARCHITECTURES, THE SYSTEM SYNCHRONIZES SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS AND AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS IN A UNIFIED MODEL THAT IS BOTH LANGUAGE- AND SAFETY-CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT AS A NEXT GENERATION AIR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM (NEXTGEN) CONCEPT. THE CONTRACTOR, SOUTHERN AIR AVIATION, INC., DEVELOPED THE VOICE-ACTIVATED COCKPIT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, VACMS, UNDER SBIR PHASE II CONTRACT NNX14CL16C. THIS SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM EMPLOYS A NOVEL HIDDEN MARKOV MODEL DECISION MANAGEMENT ALGORITHM USING SYNTHETIC LEXICON FOR PARSING AND CONTIGUOUS RECOGNITION TO ACHIEVE VERY HIGH RECOGNITION RATES (98%) FROM A VERY LARGE COMMAND SET (130,000 COMMANDS)). THE PROPOSED PHASE III EXPLORES SPECIFIC APPLICATION TAILORING FOR THIS PRODUCT WHICH SIMULTANEOUSLY ADDRESSES IDENTIFIED NEEDS UNDER THE AVIATION OPERATIONS AND SAFETY PROGRAM, SAFE AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS OPERATIONS (SASA) PROJECT AND COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS