Boeing is preparing to deliver to the US Government by mid-2001 an unsolicited proposal offering to lead development of a next-generation global positioning system (GPS)-based air traffic management architecture which it claims would solve the country's worsening congestion problems.
"Rather than waiting on someone giving us a contract to do it we are spending our own money on something we think will solve the problem," says Boeing president and chief operating officer Harry Stonecipher.
He says that while Boeing would take the role of prime contractor, it is looking to enlist other partners, possibly including airlines.
Stonecipher says his company envisages "space-based augmentation and enhancement" of the existing GPS network via a constellation of satellites capable of transmitting the huge amounts of data that would have to be processed to facilitate a true free-flight environment.
"We'll have an over-arching architecture that we think might work," claims Stonecipher, but he declines to reveal any further details at this stage. "We will probably run it."
Boeing has the expertise to lead such a project, he adds, following its recent acquisition of navigation services provider Jeppesen and Hughes' satellite manufacturing unit.
"We are in this for two reasons - to make money and to sell more commercial airplanes," he adds. Despite optimistic predictions for the continued expansion of the air transport industry, "you could have zero growth if you can't get the skies and infrastructure to a point where they are not clogged up," says Stonecipher.
Though the initial focus is the USA, Stonecipher says Boeing also plans to push the system in Europe. Implementation will take "five years, maybe 10", he adds. "We've got a lot of people working on this but we are really in the early stages."
Source: Flight International
