Air Traffic Control

• Space Control ›
• Air and Missile Defense Technology ›
• Communication Systems ›
• Cyber Security and Information Sciences ›
• ISR Systems and Technology ›
• Advanced Technology ›
• Tactical Systems ›
• Homeland Protection ›
• Air Traffic Control ›
  • Surveillance and Navigation ›
  • FAA Weather Systems ›
  • Aviation Weather Research ›
  • Weather – Air Traffic Management Integration ›
  • Software / Communication Architecture ›
  • Publications ›
• Engineering ›

More about the Air Traffic Control mission

• Future outlook and focus for upcoming year

Principal Accomplishments

Lincoln Laboratory has supported the FAA in developing and deploying the Runway Status Lights System at the Los Angeles International Airport. The system includes Takeoff Hold Lights and Runway Entrance Lights at key locations to reduce the potential for runway incursions.


• The Route Availability Planning Tool (RAPT) was deployed to Chicago to facilitate airport departure management during severe weather conditions. A successful operational evaluation during the summer storm season demonstrated the capability to adapt the RAPT concept of operations to Chicago’s four-cornerpost environment. Ongoing RAPT operations in New York City provided high benefits in this most-delay-beset metroplex in the United States.

• The Tower Flight Data Management (TFDM) prototype developed by the Laboratory was deployed to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to support successful initial shadow evaluations of TFDM and the Staffed NextGen Tower (SNT) concept. TFDM and SNT significantly improve airport operations by providing high-quality situational awareness, cross-domain collaboration capabilities, and decision support automation. Digital flight data management, high-quality surface surveillance, runway usage and airport configuration predictions, and management of departure fix and overhead stream constraints are key aspects of the TFDM/SNT concept of operations.

• The Collaborative Storm Prediction for Aviation (CoSPA) system was successfully evaluated at congested en route and terminal air traffic control (ATC)  facilities. CoSPA provides high-resolution convective weather forecasts with 0- to 8-hour look-ahead times, sufficient to support high-quality tactical and strategic ground-delay and rerouting decisions. On the basis of highly favorable evaluation results, CoSPA is expected to become a key component of the FAA’s next-generation weather decision support environment.

• Lincoln Laboratory completed initial concept development and technology evaluations for a net-centric weather information system—NextGen Network Enabled Weather (NNEW). Demonstrations at the FAA Technical Center showed the benefits of the NNEW architecture. The Laboratory will facilitate NNEW implementation through technology transfer support, operational test and evaluation, and deployment support.

• The Runway Status Lights System (RWSL) continues successful operational evaluations at Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Boston airports. New concepts demonstrated included Final Approach Runway Occupancy Signals and Runway Intersection Lights. RWSL is slated for operational deployment at 22 airports in the United States.

• In support of the FAA’s Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System program, the Laboratory developed extensive datasets, high-fidelity aircraft encounter models, and novel collision-avoidance algorithms to assess current alerting capabilities and next-generation concepts. The Laboratory also leads Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) efforts to address collision-avoidance issues limiting airspace access for unmanned aerial systems.