The future of air travel could someday look like this: Passengers would have fewer delays and faster flights. Air-traffic controllers and pilots would depend on GPS, already commonplace among motorists and smartphone users, instead of the antiquated blips of radar. Airlines would save millions of dollars on fuel.
A better air-traffic control system that relies on satellites is more than a decade away, but the technology that could make it a reality is being developed and tested at a new Federal Aviation Administration center at Daytona Beach International Airport.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, along with FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, officials of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach and other congressional leaders officially opened the $22 million test site for "NextGen," the FAA's multibillion-dollar project to modernize the nation's airspace. The Daytona center is one of three nationwide.
"We'd like more certainty where airplanes are, and we've had many near-misses," said Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. "With this, we'll know where aircraft are all the time. And with the fuel savings, passengers could have less-expensive ticket prices and the airlines can stay in business."
NextGen promises to bring aviation out of the World War II-era radar system that, despite its flaws, has guided air traffic for 60 years. Such an upgrade can't be done overnight for a system that serves 730 million passengers a year and involves about 70,000 flights every 24 hours, the FAA said.
Embry-Riddle, one of the nation's top universities for aviation and aerospace, will conduct tests at the center, and about 15 aerospace companies, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Harris Corp., are partners.
"This facility is all about innovation," Babbitt said. "The $22 million of federal funds appropriated for this test bed is probably one of the wisest investments we've made in a long time."
Installing GPS technology in cockpits and air-traffic control towers is a key part of NextGen. During Monday's tour, Embry-Riddle's research team demonstrated how the new software and GPS-based systems would affect a routine flight at Daytona Beach — a U.S. Airways flight to Charlotte, N.C.
The massive array of computer terminals and large monitors showed how each key participant in a flight — including pilots, airport managers and controllers — would use a central database that offers instant information about a plane's location, direction, speed and other factors. The airport tower could even have a virtual bird's-eye view of the plane through taxiing and takeoff.
A satellite system offers many advantages over radar. It could work in the mountains and over the ocean, where radar is useless. It would be faster and more efficient than using radios to call pilots or using handwritten notes to track planes. And it would ease the management of heavy traffic at some of the nation's largest airports, especially when weather wreaks havoc on flight schedules.
But it will take billions before NextGen becomes a reality, and there isn't a firm schedule yet for the system.
Early Monday, Mica held a congressional committee hearing at the Embry-Riddle campus to discuss NextGen's present course. Already, NextGen has cost $2.8 billion in federal appropriations, and the FAA estimates it will take $15 billion to $22 billion through 2025 to get all the technology fully installed and operational.
The FAA plans to roll the system out in phases, however, and key parts could be running by 2018. Babbitt said the airlines could see gradual savings in fuel consumption in coming years.
Getting a firm schedule for NextGen will largely depend on the next FAA bill, which Mica hopes to get to the president's desk by the end of the year.
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