The New York Times has joined this month’s parade of general-interest news outlets looking at how fuel efficiency is bringing changes to the airline business. This article doesn’t mention ADS-B, RNAV, or RNP, but it does mention continuous-descent arrivals. It also takes a look at efficiency-improving products like winglets and new technologies in engine design. [...]
Entries from April 2009
April 29, 2009
EXPLAINER: The state of performance-based navigation
FlightGlobal’s Aimée Turner has an excellent, multi-part overview of what’s happening in the fast-moving world of performance-based navigation (PBN). The centerpiece is this article, which brings home the point that all industry players — airframers, ANSPs, regulators, airlines — must pull together in order for the hoped-for cost and carbon savings to emerge. And even [...]
April 29, 2009
Missing a catering cart? In-flight meal too cold? New IT automation project wants to fix that.
A technology initiative supported by Airbus and the German government wants to change the way that in-flight meals make their way to your seat. From the press release: The project, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Germany), and being run in conjunction with Airbus, EADS and the Fraunhofer Institute, will create a [...]
April 23, 2009
Bobby Sturgell becomes top lobbyist for Rockwell Collins
Former FAA Acting Administrator Bobby Sturgell has taken a gig with Rockwell Collins, where he’ll be the company’s top lobbyist in Washington. (Press release is here.)
April 22, 2009
Economist: LAX, BOS should get congestion pricing
Dr. Itai Ater, an economist from Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Management, wants to see “congestion pricing” introduced at airports in order to save travelers time and airlines money. One direct effect is that airlines spend more money on fuel, and there are indirect costs as well, mainly passengers’ time. To counter delays, many airlines [...]
April 22, 2009
FAA ATO releases new NextGen explainer video
The FAA’s Air Traffic Organization has put together a 6-minute video illustrating how commercial air traffic is handled today, and how this will change under NextGen. The video is called “NextGen Gate to Gate,” and you can find it here. UPDATE: Wired’s “Autopia” blog picked up this story, calling out the video’s cheesy production values [...]
April 21, 2009
Former DOT head: “Airlines need to talk in economic terms, not technical ones.”
USA Today has a catch-all profile on the struggle to fund NextGen, with a particular focus on the failure to secure federal stimulus dollars so far. The main critical/analytical voice is James Burnley, who headed DOT in the late eighties. James Burnley, a Washington attorney who served as the last Transportation secretary in the Reagan [...]
April 21, 2009
Naverus gets funding boost
Even in a credit crunch, it appears that venture money is available for firms that have what investors are looking for. PBN provider Naverus just raised $4 million dollars from Silicon Valley-based Foundation Capital and San Francisco-based East Peak Partners.
April 20, 2009
South Florida ADS-B rollout feted
The Miami Herald had a reasonably accurate report about NextGen, hooked to an FAA/ITT-sponsored junket related to the South Florida ADS-B rollout. Would it be poor form to lament the — entirely typical — lack of outside perspectives against which to measure official claims?
April 15, 2009
Fast Company gives Honeywell’s GBAS a big, wet kiss
Somebody in the PR department at Honeywell Aerospace deserves a big bonus this quarter. Fast Company magazine profiled Honeywell’s GBAS (Ground-Based Augmentation System) technology, and basically pronounced it the solution to everything wrong with aviation. The lead itself is telling: In January, passengers aboard Qantas Airways’ Airbus A380 flagship, the Nancy-Bird Walton, were taken on [...]
April 13, 2009
Forget NextGen: ICAO looks to promote PBN to rest of the world
It’s easy to get caught up in NextGen and SESAR, and forget that satellite-based navigation is (and will increasingly be) a topic globally. While the U.S. and western Europe surely have the most congested airspace, there’s no doubt that efficiency in flight movements is an issue anywhere that radar is in use. With this in [...]
April 1, 2009
Industry Task Force to weigh in on NextGen
AIN’s Andrew Wood has a look at the RTCA’s NextGen Implementation Task Force, which is charged with evaluating the FAA’s ATC modernization plans: The task force membership, representing 24 separate organizations–of which only the FAA, NASA and the DOD are government agencies–held its first meeting on February 11, at which NBAA air traffic services director [...]
