FAAs Next Generation Air Transportation System - Research Paper Example

Abstract Next Generation Air Transportation System (herein referred to as NextGen) is a project of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). FAA wants to revolutionalise the country’s National Airspace System (NAS). Currently, NAS controls air traffic in American airspace using ground-based radar system. NextGen hopes to make NAS to move from this system to one which is satellite based. For this to happen, the aircrafts must comply to the new system by changing all their equipment so that they are compatible with satellite system. Most of the aircrafts today have equipment that is radar based. American airports are prone to delays especially in summer. These are what the Americans have to refer to as summer blues. This was especially worse in the summer of the year 2001. In response to this, FAA formed what came to be known as Operational Evolution Plan desk. The team was expected to increase the capacity of NAS by about thirty percent. Their deadline was the year 2013. This was in recognition of the fact that the volume of aviation in United States airspace was increasing. NAS, with their old equipment, could not handle this. The Operational Evolution Plan came up with NextGen as a response to this. Introduction The current infrastructure at National Airspace System cannot accommodate the growing American aviation industry. This is why Operational Evolution Plan (herein referred to as OEP) came up with NextGen. The delays in American airports is not only inconveniencing, it is also a security threat (Arlington, 2009). With this new plan, American airspace will be wider and safer. Aircrafts will be able to fly closer each other with no danger of clashing (Lockheed, 2007). This will reduce delays in airports. This will be beneficial to our economy and environment in general (Irwin, 2007). This is because there will be less carbon emission from the aircrafts. NextGen can be seen to be made up of three facets. These include surveillance of aircraft. The other two are improved navigation together with communication systems (Thierry, 2008). This paper will discuss the FAA’s NextGen project and some of its aspects on the American airspace and that of the world at large. It will look at how NextGen hopes to operate, the deadline for implementation, challenges, criticism and some of its primary component. Objectives of the Study The broad objective of this study is to discuss the Federal Aviation Administration’s Next Generation Air Transportation System. To this end, the study will be guided by several specific objectives. These will include the following: How is NextGen a departure from the current air control system used by NAS? How is NextGen going to be implemented? Why is there a need for NextGen? Challenges facing NextGen implementation, including criticism Benefits of NextGen Components of NextGen What are the technologies that are associated with NextGen? The current state of NextGen Stakeholders in NextGen Current Status of American Aviation Today, the guiding of planes from the airport, through the airspace and eventually to its destination is very tenuous. In fact, one can explain it using the analogy of a relay race (Lockheed, 2007). In this race, the plane is the baton to be passed from one athlete to the other, by the various control towers along the route, who acts as the athletes in this analogy (Lockheed, 2007). The plane passes through a maze of radar handoffs. The radar relay originates from the departure’s control tower. The plane is handed over to the other control towers that supervise the skies that it is flying above (Thierry, 2008). Currently, America has about twenty regional control centers (Arlington, 2009). These centers are the ones that control the aircraft above their airspaces. The plane, for it to be tracked by these centers, has to be at a minimum altitude of about 18,000 feet above the ground (Arlington, 2009). As indicated earlier, planes are controlled using radar system. For an effective control, the tower first has to locate the aircraft in the skies, and then direct the pilot accordingly (Irwin, 2007). This takes about thirty seconds using radar. This is a very long time considering the speed at which the aircraft is moving on. The speed is about 500 mph (Sandra, 2006). To avoid planes crashing blindly above the ground, NAS maintains that they should be flying at about five miles apart in the sky (Thierry, 2008). When they are landing and approaching the airport, they should be separated by a distance of about three miles (Thierry, 2008). This is why airports experience a lot of delays and congestions. The utilization of both the airport and the airspace is nothing more than inefficient as a result. The planes have to be spaced for safety matters. The plane has to stick to a specific route that the pilot has filed. It should not deviate from this route without the authorization of the ground control team (Sandra, 2006). This means that sometimes, the pilot is forced to take circuitous routes, delaying the passengers and emitting a lot of carbon to the environment unnecessarily. The Need for Adoption of NextGen There are several reasons why FAA feels that there is need to overhaul the whole of NAS’s current infrastructure. They include improving the efficiency of the American aviation sector, expanding the capacity of the same and to be able to handle future demands in the industry, which are projected to continue growing. But perhaps one of the most important reasons at today’s risk society is the need to improve the security of American airports (Arlington, 2009). Environmentalists have hailed this project as the best to save the environment from the dangers of excessive carbon emissions from airplanes (Arlington, 2009). It is well known that airplanes are one of the worst environment polluters, with their carbon emissions. Let us look at each of these needs. Need to Improve Efficiency As explained earlier, the current system used by NAS leads to an inefficient use of both the country’s airports and the airspace. There are a lot of delays in airports which affects both the travelers and the economy at large (Lockheed, 2007). This is not going to end unless something drastic is done. This is because the volume of passengers that are traveling using planes, together with the cargo that has to be hauled by use of trains, is increasing in the American aviation industry (Lockheed, 2007). It is estimated that in the year 2008 alone, the American economy lost approximately ten billion from delays in airports (Thierry, 2008). This can only rise if no one reacts, and react soon. Planes burn a lot of fuel as they have to wait longer in the skies before they land (Irwin, 2007). This is made worse by the fact that they have to take very long and circuitous routes, as opposed to direct and short ones. This way, they burn a lot of fuel. This is a source of concern considering that the prices of fuel, especially jet fuel, have gone up (Arlington, 2009). This raises the costs of operation for the airplanes, which is faithfully passed down to consumers of the air travel service. This has made air transport very expensive. Need to Increase Capacity The current NAS infrastructure is not elastic. It has only a fixed capacity. This means that it cannot handle increase in passenger volume and that of the cargo (Lockheed, 2007). Due to delays and long routes that the pilots have to take, the facility can only accommodate a fixed number of aircrafts. With the new NextGen project, the capacity of the airports will increase. The airports can now accommodate more planes. This is not only true to the airports alone, but also to the airspace. More airplanes can now be airborne at the same time (Irwin, 2007). This means that the capacity of the airspace will also be increased. Need to Meet Future Demand Aviation is one of the fastest growing industries in the economy today. It is approximated that in the year 2007 alone, it grew with more than ten percent (Thierry, 2008). The growth is even expected to be higher in the years to come, despite the looming economic crunch. With this growth, coupled with other growths in the society, demand for air transport can only rise. The source of concern is the fact that the current NAS infrastructure is not growing at the same rate (Arlington, 2009). As such, more congestion is likely to be witnessed in our airports as many people will be flying. There will be a backlog of cargo as cargo planes will not be able to handle the growing demand for air freights (Arlington, 2009). Technology in the aviation has evolved. There are now faster jets with some which are even unmanned. These cannot be controlled with the current radar system of NAS. To avoid this scenario, the NAS have to be changed so that it is in line with the new developments and is able to meet those demands. Need for Improved Safety It is true that American airspace is one of the safest in the world (Sandra, 2006). Few air accidents have been recorded in the history of American aviation. But this can change overnight. The increased number of airplanes in the skies, the increased speed of these new models combined with the antiquated control technology is a recipe for disaster (Irwin, 2007). It is more likely that planes will ran into each other in the skies blindly if this is not corrected. To continue enjoying this aviation safety, American aviation industry has to do something. That is why FAA came up with NextGen. At this age of terrorism, it is also very easy for an airplane from enemies to penetrate American airspace. Need to Conserve the Environment It might be true that this industry accounts for a small percentage of the global carbon emissions. In fact, it accounts for a measly four percent (Arlington, 2009). But this can change anytime with the increase of aircrafts that will be airborne in the years to come (Arlington, 2009). It is important to lower this number even further down. And this can be made possible by NextGen (Sandra, 2006). Currently, planes spend a longer time in the sky as they try to avoid others and as they are delayed to land. All this time, they are emitting carbon. There is a need to reduce this. NextGen will make it possible for airplanes to be airborne for a shorter time as there will be no delays in travel or in landing. Components of NextGen Project This project brings together technologies that are supposed to bring change to American airspace. It combines technological procedures, policies and advanced equipment (Sandra, 2006). However, it can be broken down into three major components. Navigation Perhaps the most important of these components. Navigation is all about guiding airplanes from their departure to their destination (Arlington, 2009). This project hopes to achieve this in a fast and efficient manner. A soft ware has been developed to this end that will allow controllers to guide the plane in bad weather and fast. This is called tailored arrivals (Irwin, 2007). It starts to control the planes when they are about 200 miles from the airport (Thierry, 2008). It is done via satellite. Starting the year 2008, a number of Tailored Arrivals have been conducted in some of our airports. They were carried out by two types of aircrafts, 747 and 777 (Arlington, 2009). They were 250 in total and carried out in the city of San Francisco. Other attempts are going on in the city of Miami. Software has been developed to guide planes as they enter the airport. It is called Continuous Descent Arrival (CDA). It maintains the craft at an appropriate altitude as long as possible as it approaches the airport. This will enable the airbus to descend directly on the airport (Thierry, 2008). Currently, planes have to come down and attain a certain level before landing, using energy from their engines (Thierry, 2008). This has the benefit of saving money on jet fuel, engine maintenance and carbon emissions (Thierry, 2008). The above mentioned software makes use of satellite approach. This is referred to as Area Navigation (RNAV). The other one, still satellite based, is called Required Navigation Performance (RNP). All this can only be achieved if the internal avionics of the plane are also satellite based (Lockheed, 2007). The plane can be navigated perfectly and precisely. To this end, FAA has allowed some of these procedures to be conducted in some airports. By the year 2020, every plane wishing to fly into American airspace is required to have satellite based avionics on board (Arlington, 2009). This will allow for a complete overhaul of the current equipment at NAS. The pilot can navigate terrain that hitherto could not dare to. This includes hills and mountains and also in bad weather. This is because radar, been ground based, cannot penetrate foul weather like storms and cannot reach rough terrains like mountain ranges. Communication The communication between the plane crew and the ground is through voice signals currently (Sandra, 2006). These voices are funneled through electronic portals from the plane to the control tower. NextGen has introduced software that will improve this. It is called NAS Voice Switch (NVS). The aim is to change this communication from analogue to digital (Thierry, 2008). The latter is more reliable than the former. Currently, FAA makes use of about fifteen varying electronic portals (Arlington, 2009). They are limited in terms of communication that can be carried out and the range of the signal. NVS is going to substitute this for one that is standardized. More people can use the technology at the same time and to people in further locations (Arlington, 2009). The control tower can communicate to planes that are far even when the weather is foul. The pilot can communicate with the tower even when he is in a remote place. Surveillance NextGen have a developed a new Geographical Positioning System specifically tailored for the aviation industry (Arlington, 2009). This system is referred to as Automated Data Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). This system makes use of the current GPS signals. But the signals are beamed via a space-borne satellite (Thierry, 2008). The plane can send out signals that give its exact position in the sky. This is transmitted from the plane, via the satellite, and then received by other planes in the vicinity and the ground control tower. This is referred to as ADS-Out. The plane is also able to receive data from the ground and other planes, via the internet, that show the exact position of the other planes in the sky. This is called ADS-In (Irwin, 2007). The data is real time and exact. Hitherto, the position of the plane had to be relayed down to the tower first before been broadcast to other planes. This is not real time; neither does it give the exact position of the other planes (Sandra, 2006). This means that planes in remote location can also be positioned. Challenges of NextGen NextGen, when fully implemented, is likely to revolutionalise the whole of the American aviation industry. This is in fact the aim that FAA hopes to achieve. Some benefits will be accrued from these changes, but this has not stopped some people from criticizing this project. One of the challenges that are likely to be encountered by FAA is the lack of funding (Arlington, 2009). NextGen is estimated to cost the authority a lot of money. This is because many of the inputs that will be needed for the project are very expensive. This is made worse by the current economic crunch (Arlington, 2009). The plan has been criticized by private pilots as been beneficial to the commercial airliners but expensive for them (Thierry, 2008). This is because they will have to invest in expensive instruments that they cannot afford but the commercial airliner can. This is a new project that has not been tested elsewhere. Some people think that it is imprudent to use all that money and resources on an experimental project that might flop (Thierry, 2008). The FAA team has had a tough time convincing the congress committees on transport and science on the viability of their project. Conclusion By the year 2020, every plane that is flying in American skies will be compliant with NextGen. This is because this is around the time that NAS is expected to be fully NextGen. The NAS will move away from radar based control system to satellite based. The planes will be expected to be fitted with avionics that will be able to interface with the satellite. But some airlines are so eager of the technology that they have opted not to wait for that deadline. For example, Delta Airline has fitted a number of their fleet of airplanes with the satellite gadgets. This is because they are aware of the benefits that will come with this technology. NextGen was introduced after FAA realized that the current NAS systems are outdated and unable to handle the current demand and the expected one on the airports and airspace of America. References Arlington, D. (2009). Revolutionalising the American air highways. Irwin & John. Houston. Irwin, P. (2007). Federal Aviation Administration and air transport in America. Cengen Books. Texas. Lockheed, O. (2007). Next Generation Air Transportation System. Mitchell & Facoult. Dallas. Sandra, L. (2006). Aviation in the twenty first century. American University Press. Michigan. Thierry, F. (2008). Growth of the American aviation industry. Oxford University Press. Oxford. Read More