Capabilities | Projects | ⇣ Services

The NextGen Integration and Evaluation Capability (NIEC) is located at William J. Hughes Technical Center, an FAA testing facility located near Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey. The NIEC is now located on the second floor of Building 300 near door 06 column G-23. 

The NIEC is the FAA's research platform to explore, integrate, and evaluate NextGen concepts through simulations resulting in concept maturation and requirements definition. The NIEC complements the unique NAS facilities and aviation-based equipment located at the WJHTC.

NIEC Fact Sheet (PDF, 1.4 MB)

The base components of the NIEC are from existing Technical Center laboratories and can be tailored for NextGen research and simulation as well as test and evaluation. The base components featured in NIEC floor plan figure are an Air Traffic Suite, a Cockpit Simulator, Unmanned Aircraft System Suite, Tower Simulation area, and a multi-purpose area. The multi-purpose area can be used to display weather data, traffic management data, operate as a simulation monitoring station, or simulate an airline operations center. Each of these NIEC components mirrors key areas in the NextGen Gate-to-Gate spectrum.

The NIEC leverages existing NAS operational systems and high fidelity, real-time simulation capabilities to create an integrated, flexible, and reconfigurable environment that can be tailored for NextGen research, as well as test and evaluation. The NIEC can provide a futuristic NextGen gate-to-gate visualization environment with advanced data collection capabilities for integration and evaluation of new technologies and concepts. The ability to provide a combined environment of legacy systems with future technologies and capabilities also enable the NIEC to support the transition to NextGen.

Services

The NIEC staff offer the following services to our customers

• Simulation environment setup, modification, and configuration
• Rapid prototyping
• Concept exploration and development
• Data collection
• Conducting simulations
• Software engineering expertise
• Network engineering expertise
• Project management expertise
• Air Traffic Control system expertise