MITRE Director Presented with Rare FAA Alaska Regional Visionary Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

McLean, Virginia, February 22, 2006 — The MITRE Corporation congratulates David J. (Jim) Chadwick, who recently retired from his position as a director in MITRE's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), on being awarded the Federal Aviation Administration's Alaska Regional Visionary Award. Not an annual award, the Alaska Regional Visionary Award is given only when an individual has contributed to a substantive improvement in the safety, efficiency, and reliability of Alaskan aviation. Chadwick received the award for spearheading the creation and development of an air-to-ground communications system that has greatly increased air safety in Alaska. The award was presented December 15 at the FAA Alaska Regional Office.

Air travel is one of the main methods of transportation in Alaska, and the state has a higher crash rate than any other state, mainly due to accidents that occur when the white landscape, heavy fog or darkness blinds or disorients pilots. Few Alaskan airports have control towers, and many small planes fly over mountainous terrain without radar or ground communications.

A pilot himself, Chadwick became aware of this problem in 1992 during an Alaskan vacation and was inspired to make flying safer in the state. By 1996, Chadwick and a group of CAASD engineers were conducting MITRE-sponsored research to develop a universal access transceiver (UAT), a data link between the ground and air that provides information about terrain and weather to the cockpit. Chadwick provided technical oversight in the construction of the data link hardware and software.

UATs have been installed in aircraft and on the ground in western and southeastern Alaska through the FAA's Capstone Project. Capstone is a safety demonstration project designed to reduce in-flight accidents and incidents in the Alaska region. The UAT system has been so successful that the FAA has also installed it along the East Coast.

"In my 42-year career, Capstone, bar none, is the project I'm most proud of," Chadwick said. "It's a terrific team, both at MITRE and the FAA, and it was incredible to contribute to a project that has reduced the airplane accident rate [in Alaska] by 42 percent. It was the pinnacle of my career, and in addition, it was fun."

Chadwick holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Kentucky and an MS in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland. He is an active pilot and a senior member of several professional societies, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Mathematical Society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. He has received numerous awards from MITRE, including the President's Award and four General Manager Awards.

MITRE (www.mitre.org) is a not-for-profit company that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service, with principal locations in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va.

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