If NextGen were an upcoming movie, Swim–for system-wide information management (Swim)–would get top billing for its leading role, and would certainly pick up the Best Supporting Actor award as well. That would only be fair, since Swim will provide the glue that will hold all NextGen’s myriad components together, according to speakers at a recent FAA/Air Traffic Control Association New Technologies Symposium in Atlantic City.
Breaking through the limitations of today’s communications and information dissemination processes, Swim will display all the current information required by specific segments of the industry with a few strokes of a keyboard, without intermediate steps or organizational filters, but with extraordinary flexibility and high levels of security protection. When the system is fully operational–currently forecast for the 2018 to 2020 period–flight departments will be able instantly to access weather, flight-planning services, delay and congestion status, Notams, pireps, navaids, airspace restrictions, airport conditions, RVRs and every other type of data whenever they are needed, 24/7. In other words, Swim will provide fast, total situational awareness to all operators, large and small, coupled when necessary with an understanding of why unusual situations currently prevail, and how long they might last.
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