Norman — Air traffic control for the U.S. airspace system won’t be grounded for long, as plans take flight to move the management system up and away via satellite, said the director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Oklahome City office.
Lindy Ritz, director of the Mike Monroney Center, spoke of the airspace system during the Norman Chamber of Commerce’s Aviation Committee meeting Tuesday.
Ritz said the administration has received the money for the new system, known as NextGen — informally “WhenGen” by those in the industry who have awaited the take-off.
“It’s happened. It’s here, and it’s going to be incremental,” Ritz said of the system that will launch soon.
NextGen is the umbrella term for the transformation of air control from a ground-based system to a satellite-based system, with the idea to transfer information to the right person at the right time, improve safety and increase capacity, efficiency and environmental performance.
“Basically, it’s safer, quieter, cleaner and more efficient,” she said.
The integrated flight plan will be one data source and will have enhanced traffic operations, such as using text message as opposed to voice for communication, Ritz said.
She estimated that by 2018, flight delays will be reduced by 21 percent, 1.4 billion gallons of fuel will be saved and 14 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions will be cut, as the new system streamlines departure management, which is currently burns significant fuel emissions.
“All of this is best guesses, but it is exciting to see things off the ground,” she said.
Accompanying the shift is a new class of air traffic controllers, mainly college graduates, whose mindset parallels the digital transformation of the airspace system.
“They look very young to me,” Ritz said, adding that these new hires were important to a successfull transition as the current generation of traffic controllers retire. “They see things quite differently.”
It’s not, however, just FAA in the cockpit steering the evolution, as airlines and private pilots take a seat. Ritz said this makes the restructuring of airport infrastructure and procedures — along with the launch of technological innovations in weather forecasting, data networking and digital communications — challenging.
“It’s going to be a massive undertaking,” Ritz said.
And it’s long overdue, said Philip Miner, air traffic controller at the University of Oklahoma Max Westheimer Airport in Norman.
“This keeps up with the times because that’s something we haven’t done,” Miner said. “We’ve been doing a lot of operating in the 1970s and 1980s mentality. This foresight drives us into the future, instead of the now.”
Nanette Light 366-3541 nlight@normantranscript.com
