GROUNDED
Ironic indeed that I find myself in an airliner, waiting on the taxi way for a weather-related "ground-stop" to be lifted. All the while perusing today's front page story in the LA Times titled:
"Carpool lanes for airplanes?
Aviation experts say a $40-billion GPS system is needed to handle the huge volume of traffic in the skies by 2025..."
"...Aviation experts say it may be tough to convince Congress — and the flying public — that the upgrade is necessary, given that many passengers assume today's system — which serves half of the world's air traffic — is adequate."
The piece is timely for other reasons, as it reminds us yet again how political and business considerations can lag significantly behind the efficient deployment of existing technology. Here's the issue in a nutshell:
"The 1950s-era network is in dire need of a technological overhaul as passenger traffic is expected to jump 78% to nearly 1.3 billion annually by 2025.
But modernizing highways in the sky with a precise satellite-based system carries a staggering $40-billion price tag, and the Federal Aviation Administration has yet to persuade Congress and the airlines to help pay for it."
And the FAA hasn't had a great track record of executing on multi-billion dollar technology re-vamps, as previous efforts just in the last few years have shown.
The airlines are balking at spending on something that seems to benefit the FAA more in terms of safety, than them in efficiency.
The irony here is that the very GPS initiative being talked about in the article was pioneered by none other than UPS, a private-sector company focused on efficiently delivering packages in a timely manner.
That the airlines who shuttle people around, should try and negotiate for a better deal with the government on the economics of the upgrade, is an interesting anecdote in itself.
The other irony is pointed in the article by an interviewee as well:
"...it has taken a catastrophic accident to provide the impetus for major change.
A midair collision between two airliners over the Grand Canyon in 1956, in which 128 people perished, convinced Congress it must fund an air traffic system that would allow more precise tracking of aircraft by radar.
Until the accident, pilots and controllers relied on rudimentary radio communications and a "see and be seen" philosophy to guide aircraft through most of the nation's air space."
And unlike previous technology upgrades to the air traffic system, this one requires full participation by the network of users to be really useful, kind of like the internet:
"Carriers and the FAA agree that the full benefits of the system will not be realized unless most aircraft are equipped with it."
And we're not about to get the benefits of any of this really quickly:
"The FAA this fall will propose requiring carriers to install ADS-B in their fleets by 2020 if they want to access what the agency calls high-occupancy vehicle lanes — or more direct routes — in the sky. It will make a final decision by 2010."
This is the state of affairs for a system that serves half the world's air traffic, as the article points out.
The one area the article doesn't cover is how the rest of the world is addressing the revamping and/or building their air-traffic systems.
I would assume Europe is in a similar boat as us.
Although China and India may have the opportunity to "leap-frog" the 1950 and 60s era technology that we apparently use for our ATS.
Ah, a Google search for another time though.
I have to turn off the laptop and it's EV-DO modem. Looks like the ground-stop may have lifted after all. Or not.
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