(Jun 3, 2003)

As the nation celebrates 100 years of powered flight this year, an innovative aerospace project developed by researchers at the NASA Ames Research Center in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be honored next week at a national aerospace conference.

Researchers in NASA's Human Factors Research and Technology Division and Computational Sciences Division, the FAA's Office of System Capacity, the ATAC Corporation, the Battelle Memorial Institute, the Computer Sciences Corporation, and the QSS Group, Inc. joined in developing the Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System (PDARS) that will receive the Administrator's Award at the Turning Goals into Reality 2003 Conference from NASA's Office of Aerospace Technology.

The Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System project provides the FAA's Air Traffic Control (ATC) decision-makers at the facility level with a set of previously unavailable comprehensive tools and methods for monitoring the health, performance and safety of day-to-day ATC operations. The reporting system enables the FAA to measure the capacity performance and safety of its air traffic services in response to congressional mandates and plays a key role in helping to reduce accidents.