Preserving the status quo is not progress. Particularly now, when the specter of sequestering looms large, forming another committee or avoiding hard decisions is irresponsible. avionics and aircraft manufacturers with a better opportunity to secure worldwide prominence in the increasingly competitive sphere of aerospace. Rather than embracing advances in navigation, communications and systems technology that exist and can be used now to effect more efficient flow of air traffic, policy leaders in our nation’s capital seem satisfied to form another committee and ignore the need to put in place funding for technologies that can reduce costs, improve efficiency, assure safety, and provide the U.S. ![]() ![]() (Even the name "NextGen" is mind-numbing, having been used to identify movements as diverse as healthcare, a European football competition, music groups and art galleries.) The aerospace community has been debating the subject of airspace modernization for more than a decade, dating back to the early 1990s when technology advances were captured in the concepts entitled “Free Flight.” Talk of NextGen has been part of the Washington dialogue for so long that policy leaders may have become numb to the subject. Many voices in Washington give loud lip service to the importance of NextGen, but progress has been woefully slow. Such thinking places our nation’s economic well-being at risk. Failing to appreciate how greatly the ebb and flow of commerce depends upon an efficient and safe aviation system, and possibly insensitive to the aggressive competition from foreign aerospace manufacturers seeking advances in ATC modernization, they argue there are more pressing problems that demand attention and dollars. Perhaps our leaders in Washington take air transportation for granted, simply assuming that a technology that has served our nation well in the past and is responsible for nearly 10 percent of our gross domestic product today will continue to evolve suitably in the future. ![]() will fall behind in an industry that facilitates domestic as well as worldwide commerce and affects our nation’s trade balance. Without a fresh attitude that identifies ATC modernization as a national priority of fundamental importance, the U.S. Considering the importance of air transportation to our nation, Congress and opinion leaders who shape national policy are disappointingly shortsighted regarding NextGen, the omnibus program to upgrade the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system.
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