Aviation

It looks like a routine takeoff, but when this aircraft left the gate, it entered it environment teaming with technology, sharing the same ground and airspace. This pilot and air traffic controller are not in an airport. They're in a simulated world. The IDEA Lab, a key asset in MITRE's Transportation Innovation Center in McLean, Virginia. Experimenting and creating new strategies and tools in this state-of-the-art laboratory, MITRE has helped to transform the national airspace system and global aviation, enabling safer, more efficient air traffic on the ground and in flight. In the IDEA Lab, controllers, pilots, policymakers, industry innovators, third-party service suppliers, and airlines operation staff work together to see new concepts in action. Simulations have accelerated our ability to explore technologies, procedures, and ideas without impacting the safety, efficiency, and access airspace users depend on every day, reducing the impacts of wake turbulence at congested airports, preventing surface collisions at small airports, creating a digital assistant to help pilots fly more safely, demonstrating the Federal Aviation Administration's vision for planning, managing, and optimizing flight efficiencies in skies shared by commercial, private, unmanned aircraft, and commercial space vehicles. Operational expertise, the ability to rapidly develop and integrate prototypes. Sophisticated scenario development and experience in human-centered simulation set MITRE's IDEA Lab apart. The IDEA Lab is adaptable and portable. We can integrate others' technologies, connect to other labs, hop into the cloud, or even set up a partner site. Most importantly, it gives each stakeholder an understanding of what needs to happen to turn ideas into reality. The IDEA Lab is prototyping future environments, applying MITRE's expertise and processes to add value across the whole of government and solve problems for a safer world.