Raytheon will lead a team of air transportation experts from industry and academia to study the impact of new classes of aircraft, including very light jets and unmanned aerial vehicles, on the next generation air transportation system, or NextGen. The Raytheon team's work will augment NASA's Advanced Concept Evaluation System, a fast time simulation model of the National Airspace System, using existing environmental and safety models to quantify how the new air vehicles and operational procedures will impact NextGen. Initially, the team will focus on developing recommendations for future operational procedures, identifying air vehicle characteristics and establishing system level metrics. "Raytheon's extensive experience with air traffic management operational procedures and our working knowledge of the Joint Planning and Development Office's enterprise architecture will allow us to perform valuable system trade studies," said Andy Zogg, Raytheon’s vice president of airspace management and homeland security.