What’s Next for NextGen?
NextGen is the FAA’s plan to modernize and increase the capacity of the National Airspace System (NAS), while simultaneously improving safety and reducing environmental impacts. NextGen is expected to transform civil aviation, much as when jet engines replaced propellers, ushering in a new level of system-wide performance. The system’s satellite-based technologies will supplant the current radar-based air traffic management (ATM) system, resulting in significant improvements of aircraft operations in the air and on the tarmac. Further, NextGen enables environmentally friendly procedures and technologies that reduce fuel burn, carbon emissions and noise.
Developing and implementing NextGen as quickly as possible is a priority because many of the most crowded airports are operating at or near maximum capacity, threatening the delivery of benefits that accompany growth in the civil aviation industry. One cause of congestion is the lack of precision in the current system, requiring a large margin of error to be built into every ATM operation. This requirement particularly affects how far apart planes must stay from each other during takeoffs and landings. The NextGen system provides an entirely new level of precision, thereby allowing more aircraft to share the same airspace.
Recent developments indicate strong industry support for the NextGen system and that deployment is on-track. In May, the FAA issued a final rule requiring aircraft to install ADS-B Out, the equipment required to broadcast an aircraft’s position, by 2020. The agency also awarded three NextGen-advancing contracts to Boeing, General Dynamics and ITT worth up to $4.4 billion over the next 10 years.
The contracts include air traffic management modeling and simulation, as well as the full integration of ground and airborne technologies and operations across all vehicle types, including commercial and military aircraft, general aviation, unmanned aerial systems and rotorcraft. The research work of all three contractors will demonstrate NextGen procedures in real time within the current air traffic system.
AIA Source: william.chadwick[at]aia-aerospace.org
