MITRE's UAT Beacon Radio Receives 2010 R&D 100 Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

BEDFORD, Mass., July 23, 2010 — The MITRE Corporation's Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) Beacon Radio has been honored with a 2010 R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine. The technologies on R&D Magazine's list are considered the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year. They are selected by the magazine's editors and an independent judging panel. MITRE staff listed on the award are: Matt DeGarmo, Perry Hamlyn, Chuck Mazzola, Chris Moody, Brian McHugh, Marc Pepi, Rob Strain, and Warren Wilson.

In development at MITRE since 2007, the UAT Beacon Radio was designed to enhance cooperative surveillance among low-altitude airspace users, such as small unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) and sport aircraft. It is a digital radio system about the size of two decks of cards, portable, and battery-powered, and supports multiple broadcast data services. It is ideal for aircraft without engine-driven electrical systems. Potential applications include emergency management operations and search and rescue missions.

"The R&D 100 Awards have always represented some of the most innovative concepts to reach the marketplace in the past year. 2010 is no exception," said Rita Peters, editorial director of R&D Magazine.

"The UAT Beacon Radio was designed to help safely incorporate UAVs into civil airspace through expanded use of cooperative surveillance," said Dr. Agam Sinha, senior vice president and general manager of the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development, the federally funded research and development center MITRE operates for the Federal Aviation Administration. "This is critical, particularly given the rapidly increasing DoD and DHS need for airspace access to train UAV pilots and carry out border protection missions."

The UAT Beacon Radio transmits aircraft reports in a manner compatible with the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system being adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration and the international civil aviation community. MITRE's small, lightweight, ADS-B-based system has a power source, positioning sensor, and UAT ADS-B transmitter in a self-contained package. If ADS-B is widely accepted by the UAV and general aviation communities, it could help mitigate the difficult challenge of unmanned aircraft autonomously sensing and avoiding other aircraft, manned or unmanned.

As a not-for-profit organization, The MITRE Corporation (www.mitre.org) does not manufacture products, but develops technology that it makes available to the research and commercial communities for further development and product manufacture.

About the R&D Awards

Since 1963, the R&D 100 Awards have been a benchmark of excellence for industry sectors including telecommunications, high-energy physics, software, manufacturing and biotechnology. For industry leaders, government labs, and academic institutions, the awards can be vital for gauging their efforts at commercialization of emerging technologies. Technologies honored in past years include the automated teller machine, named to the list in 1973, the fax machine in 1975, the liquid crystal display in 1980, and high-definition television in 1998.

About The MITRE Corporation

The MITRE Corporation (www.mitre.org) is a not-for-profit organization 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, the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Homeland Security, with principal locations in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va.

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