ATC
Paper on way out in aviation's future
One of the least welcome rites of passage for copilots is the routine chore of updating the company’s flight operations documents, with Jeppesen manuals pr

One of the least welcome rites of passage for copilots is the routine chore of updating the company’s flight operations documents, with Jeppesen manuals probably at the top (or the bottom, if you prefer) of the list. And the post-9/11 flood of TFRs hasn’t made the task any easier.

But speakers at a recent NASA conference on new communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) technologies predicted that, one day, this task could be totally automated. Just when that day will arrive wasn’t entirely clear, but the consensus appeared to put it within the next two to five years for general aviation operators, and quite a bit earlier for the airlines.