and the chances are that the answers will include three common themes.
Ask any politician or media person what NextGen is and what it will do,
and the chances are that the answers will include three common themes. First, you’ll hear that it uses satellites; second, it will be a boon to the traveling public; and third, it’s “on its way.” So far, so good. However, the devil is in the details, and NextGen has details in spades.
It’s not widely appreciated just how big a program NextGen actually is. It is truly enormous, causing a senior Boeing official to list it as one of the biggest single peacetime civil infrastructure endeavors ever undertaken by the U.S., and comparing it to the International Space Station, which itself has been called “the most expensive object ever constructed.” And yet the FAA has been unusually tight-lipped about the true size of NextGen: possibly the battle-scarred agency feels it’s safer that way. There are some interesting parallels between the two systems. The Space Station was conceived in the late 1900s, with its assembly starting around 2000 and completion planned for the 2015 to 2020 time frame. But its actual cost, rather broadly described as being between $30 billion and $100 billion, will be known only once it has been completed.
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