For the past several years news from the US repeatedly mentioned how the FAA was teetering on the brink of running out of money while Congress was debating the so-called FAA reauthorization bill. At one point the Agency actually shut down for a few days while extra funds were made available for them.
Of course this unholy situation was anything but helpful for NextGen, the FAA’s flagship project aiming to modernize the ATM system in the US. However, after all this wrangling, there is light at the end of the tunnel… and it is not the train that is coming!
A bill that would finally settle the funding issue will probably be on the President’s desk by Christmas. This was announced recently on the occasion of the opening of the renovated NextGen Test Bed at the Daytona Beach International Airport in Florida. This airport is famous among others for being the home-base of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
The bill in question will provide a four-year blueprint for the development of NextGen and will eliminate any reauthorization issues for the FAA during this time. Congressman John Mica, when talking about the bill, highlighted the fact that it includes deadlines, incentives to attract private money into the project and also a streamlining of the FAA processes used to certify new technology.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said that “NextGen will be more convenient, more dependable and it will improve safety and efficiency all at the same time.”
More surprisingly, it seems that there is a belief in some US circles that if the US gets NextGen up and running before Europe’s SESAR is ready, the US stands to reap important economic benefits. They believe that whoever sets the protocols and standards will also win he world market. The same people indicated that in their view, the US is ahead of Europe in this “race”.
Well, one can only hope that viewing NextGen and SESAR as a race is only a part of the arguments that were needed to get the money approved and not something the FAA would ever endorse. While it is true that if the US and Europe, being the biggest aviation markets in the world, agree on a standard or protocol it is likely to become the de facto standard also in the rest of the world but it is not because of a race between the two continents.
Both NextGen and SESAR work very hard to make sure that they are interoperable on all levels. Interoperability means coordinating from the start and not forcing any solution on each other. Were they to fail in this, US airlines flying to Europe and European airlines flying to the US would have hell to pay in terms of the double equipment they would need to carry. Any economic windfall the US might have with NextGen wining the race would be more than nixed in this nightmare scenario.
Of course selling hardware and software will continue to be big business and NextGen and SESAR will both show the way for the rest of the world but not as participants in a race.
They will show the way forward in terms of operational concept and engineering excellence.