A Boeing-led team is visiting Europe to compare its requirements with those of the USA for a next-generation air traffic management (ATM) system. The ATM Working Together Team (WTT) hopes to progress towards a harmonised operational concept for a global air traffic system as a result of the meetings with stakeholders in Eurocontrol's ATM 2000+ strategy.
The WTT has released a document describing 16 "cornerstones" for a future US ATM system. After evaluating the ATM 2000+ strategy document, the team has added four more cornerstones that meet unique European requirements, says WTT programme manager Matt Vance. "We want to display a bridged position that leverages both the US and European documents," he says.
The WTT, which brings together Boeing and 39 primarily US stakeholders, has also compared the future ATM operational concepts developed in parallel by Eurocontrol and the International Civil Aviation Organisation, and those under development independently by the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, and will present its results to the Europeans. "They are all very similar, so why waste resources developing four different concepts?" says Vance.
The WTT published a Phase 1 system requirements document in January. The Phase 2 cornerstones document streamlines the 174 requirements into 16 descriptions of the performance stakeholders expect. These include the capacity to accommodate 150 million operations a year in US airspace by 2020.
Source: Flight International
