Developing technology to improve the operation of the national airspace system offered potentially significant payoffs, but it was a far more complex process than simply inventing a more efficient airplane component. Operationsoriented technology had to win the support of the FAA as well as the airlines and airframe manufacturers, and it had to be not only costeffective, but compatible with other air traffic and the groundbased infrastructure of the ATC system, as well. The 4D profile descents researched by Langley engineers in the late 1970s worked extremely well on the 737 and showed potential for saving airlines significant amounts of money, but the ATC infrastructure could not support their use. The twoway data link research, on the other hand, received more support because the FAA was already planning infrastructure changes that could accommodate data link technology.

Improving the operations of the ATC system was also a difficult task because many of the components were interrelated. Developing technology to allow decreased spacing between aircraft in flight would have no benefit if the airports could not accommodate more closely spaced arrivals. Precision flare laws could help autoland systems deliver airplanes to a more optimum point on a runway, but that would only help increase airport capacity if additional technology could be developed to help pilots find the runway turnoffs and taxiways in low visibility conditions. Gaining support for technology that would improve individual components, therefore, could be difficult unless it could also provide a standalone benefit for the airlines or manufacturers. Even without being implemented systemwide, for example, data link could help airlines save fuel costs on transoceanic flights. The precision flare laws made it easier for manufacturers to pass certification testing for aircraft, even if the rest of the elements needed to improve airport capacity in poor visibility conditions were not available.

The flight experiments and demonstrations conducted by the TSRV 737 also played an important role in winning support for concepts like precision flare laws and data link communications. In addition to giving industry and the FAA valuable and convincing information about the performance of the technology in realistic flight conditions, successfully demonstrating concepts in a transport class airplane made it virtually impossible for anyone to argue that the technology would not work.