News: GPS Could Save Airlines billions In Fuel Costs, Trim Time From Flights
The current strategy being used by airlines worldwide is by the use of transit lanes. That is, the airplanes follow beacon markers from one point to another, and in so doing, they zigzag across the country to get from one place to another.
Strictly speaking, airplanes are not allowed to just run cross country on their own. The airline routes are also monitored by the traffic controllers. If a plane is in the air, it’s in an air traffic controllers monitor. If it’s about to go beyond a boundary, the next traffic controller has him in his sights. And the clincher here is that the data on the air traffic controller’s monitor is not from his rada, but data sent to him from the airplane via the plane’s transponder.
The NextGen (short for “Next Generation Air Transportation System”) proposal would allow airplanes to finally do away with this and just fly from A to B without going through the whole alphabet. NextGen would use GPS systems on the planes and this coupled with a more advanced air traffic logic would result in shorter flights, more traffic, and less congestion.
Normally when you increase traffic you would be increasing congestion. But since the travel lanes would be dissolved as a requisite of the new system, in effect there would be no more highways to follow. Thinking with the old logic, in order to increase the traffic by widening the highways or adding more lanes, there would have to be more beacons in place for the planes to follow. With the GPS system in place, the pilot would be at liberty to choose how to fly directly without following the beacons.
Safety wise, the system would give much needed information to the pilot, allowing him to see other aircraft within the area. This is not possible with the current system, as spacing between planes is monitored by the tower instead of in the air. One consideration for traffic controllers is the refresh rate of their monitoring systems. It takes several seconds for an update to show on screen. And this is the reason why planes are spaced with several miles between them.
The FAA estimates that if this system were in place, it could save upwards of $10 billion worth of annual fuel costs by 2025 for the airlines. Some airlines are already in the process of implementing GPS systems on board even without the government infrastructure. With efficient take off and landings, the airlines can already save on millions of dollars on fuel.
The expected cost of the system would be $35 billion. The cost would include upgrading traffic control systems and software and install GPS systems into planes. However, the plan has been in limbo for the past serveral years. The Bush administration has not prioritized this project. And some legislators are hesitant to have this in place as they are afraid of losing radar monitoring and traffic control jobs in their districts.
