Next Generation Air Transportation System: A Review of NextGen

Next Generation Air Transportation System, henceforth referred to as NextGen, is the future evolution of the current air transportation system.  Its aim is primarily to alleviate gridlock in the sky, thereby increasing safety, efficiency, and passenger comfort due to decreased flight and wait times.  It is projected that there will be additional increases in air travel over the next several decades; these increases to an already congested airspace would likely result in various negative outcomes such as longer wait times, increased use of fuel, decreased efficiency etc. if nothing were to be done (Vu, Kiken, Chiappe, Strybel, & Battiste, 2013). Fortunately, NextGen seems to be the answer.

NextGen utilizes active networking technology via use of airborne digital data and satellite.  Satellite data will be utilized to help map out shorter flight routes, which will alleviate present concerns with traffic congestion delays.  Additionally, the shorter routes will have the positive outcome of more efficient use of fuel, thereby saving on fuel costs (Federal Aviation Administration, 2008).  According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), these new technologies will allow for changes in system operations that would ultimately result in a reduction of congestion in the National Air Space (NAS), thereby increasing passenger satisfaction and safety as it will also allow air traffic controllers to be able to safely monitor airspace traffic (Federal Aviation Administration, 2008). One of such technologies is the implementation of unmanned aviation systems (UASs) into the NAS in cooperation with manned aircraft and air traffic control towers (ATCTs).

A crucial component for the success of NextGen is the safe use of UASs to provide informational feedback to ATCTs.  In order for UASs to be helpful in NextGen, however, they must be successful at sense and avoid.  Sense and avoid, briefly put, is the capability a UAS has to be able to differentiate and evade a possible intruding aircraft (Kenny, 2013).  This is a crucial component to NextGen as the sense and avoid systems would be essential to aid in the avoidance of collisions by use of sensors, threat detection, and trackers (Kenny, 2013).  All of the information gathered by the UAS could then be relayed back to the air traffic control tower via satellite and would create a larger sense of situational awareness.   Additionally, the UASs’ ability to self separate and avoid collision are perhaps the key technological advancements necessary for successful UAS implementation into NextGen as these are crucial components to the sense and avoid system (Kenny, 2013).

There are several human factors that must be considered in order to integrate UASs into the NAS for use in NextGen.  One of these factors is that NAS has primarily been designed for manned aircraft operations.  Therefore, it is not currently optimized for UAS integration.  Consequently, this could result in various problems with communications, airspace operations, and human systems integration (Kenny, 2013).  Additionally, the visible or known use of UASs in the NAS may pose an issue in regards to public perception.  Although the involvement of UASs in NextGen would likely significantly improve passenger satisfaction, it may also result in unforeseen passenger complaints as well since the public tends to have a negative perception of ‘drones’.  Lastly, another concern to consider is the possibility of a lost link or faulty UAS and the effects it could have.  It may result in longer wait times rather than faster ones if technical issues ever arise.

Overall, however, I believe NextGen is a good step forward in technological advancements and will likely result in greater customer satisfaction.

References

Federal Aviation Administration (2008). FAA Surveillance and Broadcast Services
Retrieved November 7, 2014 from http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/enrou
te/surveillance_broadcast/

Kenny, C. (2013). Unmanned aircraft system (UAS) delegation of separation in NextGen
airspace.  SJSU ScholarWorks, 1-117.

Vu, K. L., Kiken, A., Chiappe, D., Strybel, T. Z., & Battiste, V. (2013). Application of part-
whole training methods to evaluate when to introduce NextGen air traffic management tools to students. The American Journal of Psychology, 126(4), 433-447. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.126.4.0433