The FAA’s annual controller staffing report and outlook is available, and is chock full of interesting information. Front and center, not surprisingly, is the announcement that the agency beat its hiring target in FY’08 by bringing in 2,196 trainees. (Release from ATO communications is here.) But the report itself is the real treasure trove. Some [...]
Entries from May 2009
May 27, 2009
JPDO update – milestones since last all-hands meeting
Charlie Leader presented the following JPDO milestones in his all-hands update last week (links are included where available): FY11 Budget Guidance submitted to OST/OMB on February 20 The Environmental Management System R&D initiated in March Roll-Out Plan for 2012 implementation of Net-Centric Information Sharing Capability released on March 12 ATM Weather Integration Plan released on [...]
May 22, 2009
Passage of H.R. 915: industry groups ‘eerily’ harmonized… or are they?
Jim Swickard at Aviation Week has the following analysis in the wake of the FAA reauthorization bill passing the House: The current FAA bill retains the FAA funding mix of excise taxes, fuel taxes and general fund contributions, but increases the general aviation jet fuel tax rate from 21.8 cents per gallon to 35.9 cents [...]
May 22, 2009
Randy Babbitt confirmed as FAA Administrator
From Dow Jones Newswires: The Senate late Thursday confirmed two of President Barack Obama’s key transportation nominees. Randolph Babbitt, an aviation consultant and former president of the Air Line Pilots Association, will now take the helm of the Federal Aviation Administration. Two of Babbitt’s most pressing tasks will be to resolve labor disputes involving air [...]
May 22, 2009
H.R. 915 passes House vote
The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 915, which among many other things would reauthorize the FAA’s budget through FY 2012. The final tally was 277 to 136 (to see how your Congressman or -woman voted, click here.) The floor debate focused in large part on inspections of foreign repair stations. Here a summary from [...]
May 20, 2009
Babbitt, Porcari confirmed by Commerce Committee
From the Journal of Commerce: The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee voted to send to the full Senate for confirmation the president’s nominees for deputy transportation secretary and head of the Federal Aviation Administration. The panel acted one day after a confirmation hearing for John D. Porcari to be deputy to Secretary Ray LaHood [...]
May 19, 2009
Senators put Randy Babbitt in the hot seat
In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, FAA Administrator-designate Randy Babbitt got a taste of the challenges coming his way. By the looks of it, Babbitt has broad support and should be confirmed without any real trouble, but the Senators’ questions were telling in their own right. Some examples: Sen. Frank Lautenberg on [...]
May 18, 2009
Tuesday May 19: Randy Babbitt’s nomination hearing
Don’t miss Tuesday’s nomination hearing at the Senate Commerce Committee. Besides FAA Administrator-designate Randy Babbitt, who will surely have to field questions related to the Colgan Air crash as well as NextGen, the nominee list includes White House Chief Technology Officer-designate Aneesh Chopra. The hearing is scheduled for 11am; you can find more info here [...]
May 15, 2009
NYC airspace solution: “Shut down LGA”
From New York Times columnist Stephen Dubner via the paper’s Freakonomics blog: During a recent ground delay, I got to talking with an off-duty pilot for a major airline who was extraordinarily knowledgeable about every single airline question I could think to ask him. When I asked for his take on New York air congestion, [...]
May 15, 2009
Experts, lawmakers resist cancelation of eLoran upgrade
From NextGov: Congress and the geospatial industry are voicing opposition to President Obama’s proposal to kill a decades-old navigational system that could serve as a backup to the popular and prevalent GPS. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, [questioned] Homeland Security Department Secretary Janet Napolitano about the administration’s plan to cancel the enhanced Long Range Aid to [...]
May 13, 2009
LaHood to cancel NY/NJ slot auction
From the DOT press release: U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is proposing to rescind plans for slot auctions at New York-area airports. Under the proposal, the Department would halt plans announced last October to withdraw a number of slots from airlines operating at airports in the [...]
May 13, 2009
ATCA tech symposium: first impressions
Last week’s ATCA technical symposium in Atlantic City drew a large and interested crowd, and Fly NextGen was along for the ride. The event covered a lot of ground — so much so, it’s hard to know where to begin. (A PDF version of the agenda is here.) We’ll explore a few different topics over [...]
May 12, 2009
Airbus enters RNP game with ‘Quovadis’
Airbus press release: From July 2009, QUOVADIS, a new 100 percent subsidiary of Airbus, based in Toulouse, will sell and provide ‘Required Navigation Performance’ (RNP) services to authorities, airlines and airports, ranging from RNP procedures design, testing and flight operations packaging, to RNP training. To support QUOVADIS, Airbus has signed a cooperation agreement for RNP [...]
May 12, 2009
Concern and debate over future of U.S. positioning systems
From NextGov: The same day the that the Obama administration confirmed it planned to cancel a GPS backup system, the Government Accountability Office issued a report warning that delays in launching new satellites could imperil the performance of the navigational system. In his budget issued on May 7, President Obama recommended killing the Long-Range Navigation [...]
May 11, 2009
NASA’s aeronautics research gets boost for FY’10
From Aviation Week: NASA is to create a new research program focused on reducing aircraft fuel burn, noise and emissions and accelerating transfer of the technologies developed to the aviation community. The new Integrated Systems Research Program (ISRP) is the centerpiece of NASA’s $507 million budget request for aeronautics research in Fiscal 2010, and is [...]
May 9, 2009
UPDATE: Detailed results of the ATC web security audit
CNET posted a link to the Office of Inspector General’s report that lays out the vulnerabilities found in the recent audit of ATC systems security. (See our previous post on this story.) There’s quite a lot of sobering content, here a small sample: We tested 70 Web applications, some of which are used to disseminate [...]
May 8, 2009
SATSair, North Carolina officials launch subsidized air taxi initiative
Press release from NCFlyPorts: North Carolina’s NCFlyPorts Program announced the latest in air service availability for North Carolinians. The program provided by SATSair, a provider of customized “on-demand” air taxi service in the United States since 2004, is called “Business Day-Travelers” and offers special rates for one day trips out of Raleigh, North Carolina. “Business [...]
May 8, 2009
DOT security audit shows ATC systems vulnerable, incidents not addressed
From Information Week: The Transportation Department report states that auditors from KPMG and the Office of the Inspector General tested 70 Web applications, 35 used by the FAA to disseminate information over the Internet and 35 used internally to support air traffic control systems. The security audit found a total of 763 high-risk, 504 medium-risk, [...]
May 7, 2009
Raytheon awarded $2.3 million contract to study integrated CNS
Raytheon press release: Raytheon Company has been awarded a seven-month, firm-fixed-price contract to study the NextGen Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance architecture and determine the National Airspace System’s needs for 2018 to 2025. [..] The study analyzes ICNS interfaces to operator flight planning systems, aircraft capabilities, avionics functions and Federal Aviation Administration automation systems. The [...]
