A Career in Aviation Technical Leadership
John Gonda
December 2011
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MITRE's John Gonda has worked on several high-profile, high-impact Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) programs including: ADS-B, NextGen, and NAS CONOPs. |
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When John Gonda came to MITRE in 2001, he saw an opportunity. Having collaborated with MITRE staff previously in his career, he was familiar with the corporation's values and the technical excellence of its staff. He felt MITRE was the ideal place for him to use his 30 years of experience as an Air Force pilot, engineer, and aviation operations expert to contribute to a broad range of projects, including the next-generation air transportation system known as NextGen.
Gonda is a systems engineer in MITRE's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), which serves as the federally funded research and development center for the Federal Aviation Administration. In addition to supporting the FAA, CAASD also works with many international aviation authorities and several aviation industry associations.
New Technologies in Aviation
Gonda's MITRE career has touched on several high-profile, high-impact programs.
"One of my early projects was being part of the teams that received the Collier Trophy for the development of the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast [ADS-B] system," he says. "ADS-B is a major step forward in the evolution of air traffic management and NextGen. It enables airplanes to transmit critical information on their location, speed, and altitude to other planes in the vicinity and to ground stations connected to air traffic control centers." (The Collier Trophy, awarded in 2007 to a group of public- and private-sector organizations involved in developing ADS-B, is one of aviation's highest honors.)
"Earlier in my MITRE career, I was involved in RTCA. [RTCA serves as a leading federal advisory committee on aviation standards development.] I also led the Department of Defense team that developed the NAS [National Airspace System] Surveillance Roadmap and the DoD portion of the NAS CONOPs. The CONOPS—or 'concept of operations'—defined the transition in this country from aviation surveillance by radar and beacon to surveillance by satellite using ADS-B and future communication, navigation, and surveillance capabilities."
In addition, Gonda was a member of a select FAA-Eurocontrol future communications system, concept, and operational requirements team.
As his history at MITRE shows, not all of Gonda's work has been for the FAA. "One of my projects supported the chief of staff of the Air Force," he says. "I surveyed the communication capabilities of several Latin American countries to help gauge their ability to conduct successful surveillance of their sovereign airspace."
Working Across the Aviation Community
One of Gonda's current projects supports the FAA's data communications program. The program centers on providing air and ground data communications capabilities.
"There are many aspects to my support of the data communications program, but I mainly focus on concepts and services, standards development, operational requirements, and airline avionics equipage," he says. One of his most recent activities was working with a team in a MITRE aviation lab to develop a human-in-the-loop simulation capability. The results of their experiments will help validate communication standards and generate data for decision makers in the FAA and aviation industry.
Gonda also plays a leadership role in the external aviation technical community. "A portion of my work supports Glenn Roberts—CAASD's chief engineer—in association leadership. I'm currently the chairperson of the Digital Avionics Technical Committee for the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics [AIAA]. I'm also an AIAA associate fellow."
The AIAA Digital Avionics Technical Committee is a non-profit organization that runs a successful endowment program and conducts two annual technical gatherings, the Digital Avionics System Conference and the Integrated Communication Navigation and Surveillance Conference.
"I find it totally rewarding to see the funds raised by the AIAA being applied to endowments and awards for worthy students who wish to pursue careers in aviation," he says. "We've distributed eight endowments totaling close to $200,000, which have generated over 20 annual awards." The Women in Aerospace organization is the most recent endowment recipient.
He clearly enjoys his work with the AIAA. "It's one of my favorite projects. The technical committee I chair has approximately 35 to 40 members from the government and avionics-related industries. The group also includes six international members."
A Bountiful Life
He credits MITRE for making many aspects of his life possible. "MITRE's commitment to work-life balance has allowed me to enjoy and contribute to my family's enrichment in a way I never imagined possible," he says. "Since my wife Mary and I have five children, we are constantly engaged in family activities and in being good parents."
He adds, "I've always felt that if you do your job right here, you can fashion your schedule to fit your lifestyle and level of acceptable stress. In my case, working at MITRE and having the association with the AIAA have afforded me the opportunity to touch the lives and livelihoods of literally thousands of people worldwide."
—by Kay M. Upham
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