RENO – A $15 billion investment is needed to transform the air traffic control management system to provide a 20-year transition into the next generation of ATC technology.
That investment will yield a $100 billion growth in gross national product, said Neil Planzer, the director of Boeing's ATM strategy. Reduced airport congestion, he said, will make the economy more efficient. Aircraft sales generate 11 percent of the nation's GNP. Planzer estimates that Boeing sales could increase such that it generates 15 percent of the GNP.
"The system must change," Planzer said. "It has to have a transformation phase, but it has to be revolutionary in its change." Participating in a panel discussion on new models for aviation systems at the Airports Council International-North American annual meeting, Planzer noted that the U.S. model will differ from Canada's 10-year-old NavCanada, a private company that now owns Canada's ATC system. The U.S. system should also be different than the current efforts to implement the One Sky concept in Europe.
NavCanada may be good for them. However, Planzer said, whether that is the right model for us is debatable. It has to be tailored to meet our needs.
Planzer noted that in Canada they recognize and reward changes, while in the United State "we complain about the costs. The Canadian system is 'real' and mine is conceptual."
Planzer outlined four requirements for growing capacity:
- Better short-term weather forecasting, so that aircraft can avoid major flight changes to fly around a storm
- Technology that can forecast and predict wake turbulence
- New operational concepts that get people and equipment working more efficiently
- Financial instruments to raise the capital for the equipment upgrades
A transitional, net-centric structure would tap a number of new technologies so that the command and control of a flight is shared between the controller and the pilot.
Planzer said that, with the variety of new technologies, the location of an aircraft can be pinned down to within centimeters of its actual location.
If the challenges are met, Planzer said the landing and take-offs of each aircraft will be well monitored and precise. Airports will be able to increase capacity by paving the land between two parallel runways, thus creating a third runway.
