At a busy airport, every aircraft in the area shares just a handful of radio frequencies. Spectrum and time are constrained and if multiple people speak at once, both messages can get lost. Communications like \u201cclearance delivery,\u201d which require long transmissions and readbacks, are challenging in high-traffic areas, particularly when weather or other factors require many aircraft to communicate with controllers at once. Going digital clears that channel for urgent, time-critical calls, among other things. And it\u2019s the current practice at some airports, where pilots can confirm clearances with the touch of a button, that the response goes directly to the controller\u2019s screen, and the updated information loads into their flight management system.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Will Cummings-Grande, aerospace engineer with the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate based at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center, is leading technical work that centers around Communications Architecture and Performance for Digital Clearance in NASA\u2019s Air Traffic Management and Safety (ATMS) project. He\u2019s researching the next layer of digital clearance, extending that same logic down to taxi instructions on the ground, so that pushback timing, routing, and runway assignments could also arrive digitally rather than over the radio.<\/p>\n
He sought out the most current, ground-level knowledge about how digital clearance delivery works in practice \u2014 not in a research paper, but in a real tower, on real systems, with the people who run them every day. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) offers the training he wanted to air traffic controllers, so he reached out to the FAA Academy \u201con a hope and a prayer\u201d that they might accept him as a student.<\/p>\n
And in early April, Cummings-Grande traveled to the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (MMAC) in Oklahoma City to complete the Tower Data Link Services (TDLS) Application Specialist training \u2014 the same two-day, hands-on course required of working controllers at the 72 U.S. airports currently equipped with digital clearance delivery capability.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/cummings-will.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/figure>In the Classroom<\/strong><\/h4>\nCumming-Grande shadowed a working controller during exercises, trading off at the terminal during breaks so both got time on the system. His classmates were application specialists from Seattle, Sacramento, San Jose, and Fort Lauderdale, all controllers with day jobs managing high-traffic airspace who were there to become the designated system maintainers at their home airports. During breaks, Cummings-Grande had a luxury: time to test. \u201cI got to bounce some of my ideas and concepts off of controllers who are out there interacting with the TDLS and all of the tools it touches in the current system,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was great to have both \u2014 here\u2019s what the controller-in-training gets, and here\u2019s what I get as a researcher \u2014 kind of lumped into the same experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FAA Academy also connected him with the systems engineers responsible for developing, testing, and implementing new TDLS hardware and software versions, and arranged a visit to the OKC tower to observe the system in live operation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
What He Found<\/strong><\/h4>\nThe TDLS runs on fully air-gapped software, completely isolated from standard operating systems \u2014 a deliberate cybersecurity design that made the hands-on experience revelatory in ways a research paper couldn\u2019t replicate. \u201cInteracting with the system was just very eye-opening as to how different these systems are from other computers that we commonly interact with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The more significant discovery came from the curriculum itself. Reviewing the FAA\u2019s system architecture during training, Cummings-Grande noticed something he didn\u2019t know to look for: a link between the TDLS and the Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM), which does not yet exist operationally. That gap is now the center of his research questions. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize I was missing this piece until I took this course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Building on Two Decades of Homework<\/strong><\/h4>\nThe research Cummings-Grande is pursuing connects to a long thread of NASA work on surface safety and digital communications, including the Terminal Area Productivity program, the Surface Operation Automation Research (SOAR) project, the Low Visibility Landing and Surface Operations (LVLASO) project, and Surface Trajectory Based Operations (STBO) studies. These efforts kicked off in the mid-90s to inform FAA NextGen and demonstrated digital taxi clearances in a series of simulations at multiple facilities and ultimately flight tests at the Atlanta Airport. Those findings showed meaningful workload reductions, but the cost-benefit case wasn\u2019t there yet, and the technology wasn\u2019t ready in the fleet or in the facilities.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s changed, in Cummings-Grande\u2019s view, is the convergence of new infrastructure investments, including the rollout of systems derived from Airspace Technology Demonstration (ATD-2) technologies like the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor and the Precision Departure Release Capability through the TFDM, with renewed industry interest from a partner on the aircraft side. \u201cWe have all this homework that people have been doing for the last 20-30 years,\u201d he said. \u201cCan we take advantage of the renewed interest from FAA and industry to enable this safety-enhancement?\u201d<\/p>\n
His timeline estimate for a fully implemented system leans somewhere in the range of five to ten years. And the payoff, he says, will be tangible to anyone who flies. \u201cThis means that your flight will be safer than ever, and that your pilots will be focused on the right things during taxi. Instead of relying on pilots to write down their taxi clearance correctly or be familiar with the airport, the airplane will know and can double-check what the pilot is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A Case for Partnership<\/strong><\/h4>\nCummings-Grande isn\u2019t aware of another NASA researcher having taken this FAA course, and he thinks the model is worth repeating. He pointed to terminal procedures design (TERPS) as another area where FAA Academy training could benefit researchers working on urban air mobility and small UAS integration. \u201cAnytime someone needs to do a deep dive into one of the systems \u2014 understanding the current state of practice, here are the buttons you push to make this happen \u2014 I think it\u2019d be great to have an ongoing partnership with the FAA Academy and make that possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The FAA Academy team was, by all accounts, a willing partner.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Cummings-Grande extends his special thanks to the FAA\u2019s Eric Gandrud and Carol Raiford.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lear-fan-2100-and-goose.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nWill Cummings-Grande met an unexpected security detail during his final day at MMAC \u2014 a goose standing guard over a vintage Lear Fan 2100 parked outside the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute. \u201cI hear a hiss, and I look down, and there\u2019s a goose who is defending their favorite airplane.\u201d<\/div>\nCredit: Will Cummings-Grande\/NASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPowered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\nGet The Details…<\/a>
\nSondra Woodward <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a busy airport, every aircraft in the area shares just a handful of radio frequencies. Spectrum and time are constrained and if multiple people speak at once, both messages can get lost. Communications like \u201cclearance delivery,\u201d which require long transmissions and readbacks, are challenging in high-traffic areas, particularly when weather or other factors require [\u2026] Continue reading
The TDLS runs on fully air-gapped software, completely isolated from standard operating systems \u2014 a deliberate cybersecurity design that made the hands-on experience revelatory in ways a research paper couldn\u2019t replicate. \u201cInteracting with the system was just very eye-opening as to how different these systems are from other computers that we commonly interact with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The more significant discovery came from the curriculum itself. Reviewing the FAA\u2019s system architecture during training, Cummings-Grande noticed something he didn\u2019t know to look for: a link between the TDLS and the Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM), which does not yet exist operationally. That gap is now the center of his research questions. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize I was missing this piece until I took this course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Building on Two Decades of Homework<\/strong><\/h4>\nThe research Cummings-Grande is pursuing connects to a long thread of NASA work on surface safety and digital communications, including the Terminal Area Productivity program, the Surface Operation Automation Research (SOAR) project, the Low Visibility Landing and Surface Operations (LVLASO) project, and Surface Trajectory Based Operations (STBO) studies. These efforts kicked off in the mid-90s to inform FAA NextGen and demonstrated digital taxi clearances in a series of simulations at multiple facilities and ultimately flight tests at the Atlanta Airport. Those findings showed meaningful workload reductions, but the cost-benefit case wasn\u2019t there yet, and the technology wasn\u2019t ready in the fleet or in the facilities.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s changed, in Cummings-Grande\u2019s view, is the convergence of new infrastructure investments, including the rollout of systems derived from Airspace Technology Demonstration (ATD-2) technologies like the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor and the Precision Departure Release Capability through the TFDM, with renewed industry interest from a partner on the aircraft side. \u201cWe have all this homework that people have been doing for the last 20-30 years,\u201d he said. \u201cCan we take advantage of the renewed interest from FAA and industry to enable this safety-enhancement?\u201d<\/p>\n
His timeline estimate for a fully implemented system leans somewhere in the range of five to ten years. And the payoff, he says, will be tangible to anyone who flies. \u201cThis means that your flight will be safer than ever, and that your pilots will be focused on the right things during taxi. Instead of relying on pilots to write down their taxi clearance correctly or be familiar with the airport, the airplane will know and can double-check what the pilot is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A Case for Partnership<\/strong><\/h4>\nCummings-Grande isn\u2019t aware of another NASA researcher having taken this FAA course, and he thinks the model is worth repeating. He pointed to terminal procedures design (TERPS) as another area where FAA Academy training could benefit researchers working on urban air mobility and small UAS integration. \u201cAnytime someone needs to do a deep dive into one of the systems \u2014 understanding the current state of practice, here are the buttons you push to make this happen \u2014 I think it\u2019d be great to have an ongoing partnership with the FAA Academy and make that possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The FAA Academy team was, by all accounts, a willing partner.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Cummings-Grande extends his special thanks to the FAA\u2019s Eric Gandrud and Carol Raiford.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\nWill Cummings-Grande met an unexpected security detail during his final day at MMAC \u2014 a goose standing guard over a vintage Lear Fan 2100 parked outside the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute. \u201cI hear a hiss, and I look down, and there\u2019s a goose who is defending their favorite airplane.\u201d<\/div>\nCredit: Will Cummings-Grande\/NASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPowered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\nGet The Details…<\/a>
\nSondra Woodward <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a busy airport, every aircraft in the area shares just a handful of radio frequencies. Spectrum and time are constrained and if multiple people speak at once, both messages can get lost. Communications like \u201cclearance delivery,\u201d which require long transmissions and readbacks, are challenging in high-traffic areas, particularly when weather or other factors require [\u2026] Continue reading
Cummings-Grande isn\u2019t aware of another NASA researcher having taken this FAA course, and he thinks the model is worth repeating. He pointed to terminal procedures design (TERPS) as another area where FAA Academy training could benefit researchers working on urban air mobility and small UAS integration. \u201cAnytime someone needs to do a deep dive into one of the systems \u2014 understanding the current state of practice, here are the buttons you push to make this happen \u2014 I think it\u2019d be great to have an ongoing partnership with the FAA Academy and make that possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The FAA Academy team was, by all accounts, a willing partner.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Cummings-Grande extends his special thanks to the FAA\u2019s Eric Gandrud and Carol Raiford.<\/em><\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a> At a busy airport, every aircraft in the area shares just a handful of radio frequencies. Spectrum and time are constrained and if multiple people speak at once, both messages can get lost. Communications like \u201cclearance delivery,\u201d which require long transmissions and readbacks, are challenging in high-traffic areas, particularly when weather or other factors require [\u2026] Continue reading <\/a><\/figure>
\nSondra Woodward <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"