While users push for more near-term benefits from the U.S. NextGen airspace modernization effort, a research transition team established by the FAA and NASA is trying to ensure longer-term technologies stay on track to deliver the increases in capacity and efficiency required by 2025.

“We are working together to identify what is needed in the mid- and far-term, and to decide what to transition and when,” says Jaiwon Shin, NASA associate administrator for aeronautics research. “It’s a moving target and we constantly need to adjust our plans.”

Shin acknowledges that pressure from airlines and other users for early benefits from existing equipment and available tools, dubbed “NowGen,” is raising concerns that a gap will open up between near- and mid/far-term technologies that could slow development of the full suite of NextGen capabilities

“The FAA is responding to requests to accelerate NextGen by focusing on near-term technologies that do not need a lot of development. NASA is working on mid-term and far-term capabilities,” says Shin. “The challenge is to make the connection between them as robust as possible. They need to be linked.”

Much of NASA’s NextGen research is focused on how functions are allocated between the aircraft and the ground. Too much focus on near-term benefits using existing equipment could make it harder to introduce mid- and far-term capabilities that require new avionics and air traffic management tools.

“If we do not maintain a strong connection between the near-, mid- and far-term, the [pace of development and deployment of new capabilities] will reduce and we will not get to the NextGen 2025 vision,” says Shin.

RTCA Task Force 5 is finalizing a report indentifying the near-to-mid-term “NowGen” capabilities that users want. Although the recommended capabilities focus almost exclusively around existing equipage and available tools, the draft report maintains they remain aligned with the long-term goals envisaged for NextGen.

Image: Aviation Week & Space Technology