NextGen in a nut shell is the wave of the future for the way we utilize airspace for air travel. From general aviation to major airlines, the move toward a more efficient use of our airspace through NextGen will be beneficial to all in time.
NextGen Technology differs from today's technology by moving from ground based navigation systems to satellite based navigation. An AOPA article titled NextGen: What's the future of ATC? states that ADS-B is considered the backbone of NextGen because it provides precise aircraft position, altitude, speed, and intent information to other aircraft in the air as well as controllers on the ground. This is only one of the benefits of Nextgen, the following describes the different aspects of NextGen from the FAA's web site starting with ADS-B.
- ADS-B: Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast
- CATMT: Collaborative Air Traffic Management Technologies
- Data Comm: Data Communications
- NNEW: Network Enabled Weather
- NVS: The National Airspace System Voice System
- SWIM: System Wide Information Management
- AIRE: The Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions
The question on the mind's of most people regarding NextGen is who's going to shoulder the cost to implement this new technology. FAA estimates are that it will spend $15 to $22 billion on NextGen, and the airlines and GA will spend up to $22 billion though the year 2025. What that translates to for Americans is that the taxpayers will be flipping the bill for the FAA, and that general aviation and the airlines will cover the rest. I feel that this is weighted a little to much on the taxpayer and not enough on the airlines. The average taxpayer is not going to realize the benefits from NextGen like the airlines will. With airlines you have stakeholders who are mostly concerned with bottom line numbers. With the estimates from the studies about the potential savings to the airlines through efficiency and wait times to the increased number of flights that will be realized, it is clear that the airlines should be more interested in the implementation of NextGen over the FAA. As far as safety is concerned with NextGen and the estimated growth of air travel, the FAA and the airlines should be very cautious about knowing to operate within their limitations and the limitations of the airspace in which they are operating or controlling, be it NextGen or not.
In this article dated September 21, 2011 it seems that for the year 2012 the implementation costs of NextGen will be covered by the FAA. In my opinion a structured system that does not affect private pilots who own or rent aircraft's, and are not flying for profit should be considered. All for profit flights (with some exclusions i.e. training flight) should be targeted to contribute in some way to fund the future of NextGen navigation.
The following two articles are examples of how the FAA is testing/proving how the NextGen system will work and how it will increase revenue and decrease emissions.
I think the implementation of NextGen will truly revolutionize our national air space system. Although it will be very costly to implement during the initial years, I think it will be worth the cost and will ultimately help save our government and our commercial aviation industry billions of dollars over the long run (cut CO2 emission, save fuel, minimize delays, etc). The down-size of NextGen is whether GA will have to put up with possible high cost and user fees in upgrading aircraft technology/avionics and in using the system.
ReplyDeleteGood discussion of NextGen and interesting links that describe how it is being tested. You bring up a good point that we will discuss this evening - most people have clear ideas about how the airlines and GA should pay, but what about other users, such as the USA Jets or 135 operators?
ReplyDeleteYour articles are awesome its cool to read something about the actual testing. I hope it does well as this will help aviation in so many ways.
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