ATC
Expect some hurdles for NextGen integration
One of the traditional buzz phrases in discussions about improving ATC has been the time-honored “system of systems” that envisions a National Airspace Sys

One of the traditional buzz phrases in discussions about improving ATC has been the time-honored “system of systems” that envisions a National Airspace System in which everything meshes together smoothly. It will be some time before the U.S. realizes that vision with NextGen, according to Lockheed Martin’s Tom Dilenno, who spoke at last month’s Air Traffic Control Association Conference.

Dilenno pointed out that many of today’s NAS automation systems do not provide air traffic controllers with the consistent, accurate information they need to achieve the efficient operations NextGen requires. He attributes this to the fact that the current NAS is composed of multiple systems, each of which implements similar functions differently, and sometimes generates different results for the same type of information.