It must be horrible to be the project manager of major aircraft programs these days. Look at the Airbus A380, the A400M, the Boeing 787 or the 747-8. They were all delayed by several years and the reasons were often quite pedestrian (like incompatible software or strength calculation errors). It will fall on the Airbus A350 to improve the record but in view of what has almost become the routine now, it would be a miracle of the 350 flew on time.
But air traffic control systems are faring little better. Which was the last really new ATC system in Europe that was delivered and put into operational use on the date originally stipulated? And now, a delay to ERAM is here to set the trend forth.
Under the En-Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) program, the FAA is replacing the computer network for air traffic control facilities that manage traffic in the upper airspace. Modernizing this network is critical to allowing the FAA to continue managing air traffic effectively. It is also an essential component of NextGen , the FAA’s next generation air traffic control system.
The FAA had established an aggressive schedule for the ERAM program and until 2008 they were able to keep the program on budget and ahead of schedule. But then, like in some many programs in the world before them, things started to unravel. With the date of planned initial operating capability (IOC) looming, software glitches forced a postponement. Although IOC was in the end declared in June 2009, persistent problems make it very likely that the FAA will not be able to have ERAM operational in its en-route centers by the end of 2010 as originally planned.
ERAM is currently running in test mode in Salt Lake City but the system has treated controllers to cases of misidentified aircraft, radar data processing
problems and even some hardware hiccups.
ERAM is being developed by a team led by Lockheed Martin and they have been working on the new system since 2002. Right now, the FAA is expressing concerns about introducing the system at the more complex ATC centers while Lockheed Martin is describing the situation in words that would make you believe all this is part of the introduction of any complicated system.
It should not be of course, but the track record of major aviation projects seems to indicate otherwise…