John Robinson is a senior Software and Project Engineer at Crown Innovations.
Robinson brings over 30 years of experience in aviation research and development, supporting NASA and FAA programs across the government and private sector. Robinson serves as the Airspace Services Software Engineering Lead for Crown at the NASA Ames Research Center, where he oversees delivery of the software services critical to conducting simulations of urban air mobility (UAM) concepts. He is also a Senior Adviser to NASA’s Air Mobility Pathfinders project management, ensuring operational feasibility and high-quality technical integration of UAM concepts.
Before joining Crown Innovations, Robinson spent seven years at Cavan Solutions, where he provided senior-level programmatic and technical support across a range of FAA programs, including air traffic automation, air traffic management, and flight services.
Earlier in his career, as a NASA leader in advanced aviation, Robinson focused on increasing capacity and safety in the nation’s busiest terminal areas. He led several high-impact research and development projects, including the Air Traffic Management Demonstration #1 (ATD-1). As Chief Engineer for the ATD-1 project at NASA, Robinson led interagency FAA/NASA activities, including FAA program requirements development, capability testing, and technology transfer. These activities involved senior NASA and FAA executives, two NASA Centers, multiple FAA lines of business, and several FAA contractors.
Robinson also directed agile software engineering teams that built advanced air traffic decision support tools. Robinson co-authored NASA’s first Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management Concept of Operations in 2017.
Robinson has authored 36 conference and journal articles. His achievements were recognized with two NASA Software of the Year awards, in 1998 and 2018. In 2010, he received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal for substantial contributions to NASA’s air traffic management research and development. He is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics senior member and a Vertical Flight Society member. He holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
