NextGen no longer just around the corner; it's here

You may have heard me talking about NextGen, a comprehensive overhaul of our national airspace system. Today, we’re announcing final regulations to aircraft manufacturers for implementing NextGen's surveillance capability, called ADS-B.

NextGen is important for the convenience, dependability, sustainability, and safety of your air travel. And it is happening--now.

Download the NextGen Implementation Plan at http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/nextgen/media/NGIP_3-2010.pdf

Today's regulations set clear performance requirements for the electronics that will allow aircraft to be tracked with greater precision and accuracy. And by 2020, all aircraft flying over the United States will be broadcasting an ADS-B signal.

Since December 2009, our new satellite-based airline tracking system, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), has made air traffic control services available in an area over the Gulf of Mexico where these services had never been possible before.

And since then we’ve been testing this new capability in the high-traffic airspace over Philadelphia, over Louisville, Kentucky, and over Juneau, Alaska, where there’s little or no radar today.

NextGen technology will allow better decision-making from flight planning to arrival gate

ADS-B will allow pilots to get the same information as air traffic controllers and see the same things on their screens. Pilots will know where aircraft are located and how close one plane is to another. They'll have a clearer picture of what’s happening in the air or on the ground--even in low visibility.

NextGen is about getting the right information to the right people at the right time to help them make better decisions. It will make our aircraft safer, our runways and taxiways less congested, our skies quieter, and our carbon footprint smaller.

Simply put, NextGen will be a better way of doing business. And that better way is no longer just around the corner.

It's here. Today.

Comments

[Michael E. Bailey]

Next-Gen sounds great. And hopefully, it will be accessible to general aviation planes, too. All aircraft need to be tied-into the Next-Gen system. There have been several instances over the past 2 months of near collisions involving commercial jets and general aviation planes on runways or over major airports. We need to have Next-Gen fully operational as soon as we can because air traffic will not decrease, it will increase. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[ffxiv gil]

All aircraft need to be tied-into the Next-Gen system. There have been several instances over the past 2 months of near collisions involving commercial jets and general aviation planes on runways or over major airports.

[ffxiv gil]

There have been several instances over the past 2 months of near collisions involving commercial jets and general aviation planes on runways or over major airports.

[ffxiv gil]

NextGen is about getting the right information to the right people at the right time to help them make better decisions. It will make our aircraft safer, our runways and taxiways less congested, our skies quieter, and our carbon footprint smaller.

[ffxiv gil]

NextGen is about getting the right information to the right people at the right time to help them make better decisions. It will make our aircraft safer, our runways and taxiways less congested, our skies quieter, and our carbon footprint smaller.

[James]

Thank you for implementing NexGen! I personally love it since I fly domestically about twice a month on business and it makes me feel safer in the air.