A systems view of future air traffic management (ATM) operations and equipment

The major air traffic control (ATC) planning concern is capacity to support anticipated aircraft operations. If traffic exceeds available capacity, delays occur that increase airline costs, inconvenience passengers and add to air traffic controller workload. The FAA approach to overcoming capacity concerns is to investigate a concept called "free flight" which provides user preferred routing with responsibility for safe and efficient operations shared between pilot and the ground. A number of software decision support tools have been developed to aid controllers in establishing more efficient air routes and reducing aircraft spacing. To take advantage of new ATM technologies in avionics, airspace users must upgrade their equipage. Installing new onboard processing, communications and display subsystems will be the initial focus. A joint FAA/industry committee is now developing a concept of aircraft equipage to define the necessary avionics.