System Will Address Capacity At Nation's Busiest Airports

Raytheon was recently awarded a contract to develop the NextGen Terminal Data Distribution System, which will make more efficient use of the crowded airspace in the US. The contract was awarded by the US Department of Transportation's Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration. The Volpe Center provides key support to the Federal Aviation Administration on NextGen.

The TDDS will automate flight information, resulting in improved capacity in the nation's airspace. It will facilitate the exchange of net-enabled data between disparate systems and integrate multiple data sources to better manage the airspace. It will be the first-of-its-kind terminal system applied in the FAA's System Wide Information Management program.

The SWIM program will enable increased common situational awareness and improve the National Airspace Systems' ability to deliver the right information to the right place at the right time.

"Raytheon is continuing to lead and support NextGen with innovative solutions," said Andy Zogg, Raytheon Network Centric Systems vice president of Airspace Management and Homeland Security. "We see TDDS as an important first step in helping address the capacity issues in our nation's airspace."

TDDS will facilitate the exchange of NAS flight data with multiple existing systems, allowing them to better manage in-flight and airport traffic flow.

As aircraft fly through airspace, they pass through different tracking systems. The tracking systems transmit data and communicate with each other using point-to-point interfaces, each with a unique communication link and special purpose protocol. This makes adding new interfaces and capabilities costly and time-consuming.

The SWIM program requires cost-effective deployment of new capabilities to manage airspace more effectively and efficiently. TDDS will replace the point-to-point interfaces with SWIM-compliant, service-oriented architecture.

The team, led by Raytheon's Network Centric Systems, includes Lockheed Martin's Transportation and Security Solutions Division, Intelligent Automation and Dnutch Associates.

FMI: www.raytheon.com