Feds Want to Equipe Gliders With Transponders and Radios

On Thu, 1 May 2008 16:11:39 -0500, "Steven P. McNicoll"
wrote in
:

DHS does not dictate ATC policy.

Not directly, however it appears there is cooperation among the
various departments, including DHS and DOT's FAA through the Next
Generation Air Transportation system Joint Planning and Development
Office as well as DOT's Research and Innovative Technology
Administration. So while DHS not dictate ATC policy, it would seem
that DHS is able to influence the direction of ATC's future, if not
current, path:


http://www.jpdo.gov/newsArticle.asp?ID=5
On September 9, 2004, the Joint Planning and Development Office
and the Air Traffic Control Association co-sponsored a symposium
in Washington, DC on Network Enabled Operations (NEO) for
Aviation. Attended by more than a hundred representatives from the
private and public sector, it featured a diverse group of speakers
who delved into how NEO relates to the Next Generation Air
Transportation System, its potential benefits, and the changes and
barriers that must be overcome if transformation is to be
achieved. The following is a synopsis of the symposium's sessions.
...

[NB: The prime advocate of user-fees is the corporation with the
satellite-based ATC product, below:]

Neil Planzer, Boeing's Vice President, Strategy, Advanced ATM
Systems, looked at the "hidden challenges and obstructions" to
transformation. He said that the root problem is that there is "no
political imperative today for us to change." Moreover, he
contended that previous technological failures and budget
constraints could further contribute to hindering transformation.
Mr. Planzer also argued that the hub and spoke system "embeds in
the [ATC] system a capacity problem." He concluded that if
transformation is to succeed, a strong argument has to be made as
to its security value to the Departments of Defense (DOD) and
Homeland Security (DHS).

Derek Smith, Information Technology Program Manager for the
Transportation Security Administration in DHS saw five issues
influencing the transformation towards NEO: (1) socio-political,
such as the inability to motivate the workforce to change from the
legacy systems to NEO; (2) missions may not be able to accommodate
future needs and process controls; (3) full start-up funding; (4)
security needs and; (5) the socialization of each issue.
...



http://www.jpdo.gov/whoswho.asp
Next Generation Air Transportation system Joint Planning and
Development Office




http://www.jpdo.gov/library/In_Brief_2006.pdf
How Nextgen and the JPDO Came To Be
In 2003, Congress passed Vision 100—Century of Aviation
Reauthorization Act which chartered the Joint Planning and
Development Office (JPDO) to begin work on the planning and
implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System.
What Congress envisioned, and what has developed since, is an
unprecedented initiative. It involves not only the Federal
Aviation Administration, but also the Departments of
Transportation, Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce, NASA, and
the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
But it is not solely a government program. To ensure...



http://www.jpdo.gov/library/Sturgell_Web.pdf
JOINT STATEMENT OF ROBERT STURGELL, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL
AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, AND CHARLES LEADER, DIRECTOR, JOINT
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE, BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION ON THE
FUTURE OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL MODERNIZATION
May 9, 2007
Good morning Chairman Costello, Congressman ...

SESAR, like NextGen, has a lot of work remaining to refine
assumptions and better define the system. However, there is an
important difference in scope between SESAR and NextGen. While
SESAR focuses almost exclusively on air traffic management,
NextGen takes what’s called a “curb-to-curb” approach, and
includes not only air traffic control, but also airports, airport
operations, security and passenger management, and DoD and DHS NAS
requirements. ...




http://www.rita.dot.gov/publications...ection_04.html
U.S. Department of Transportation
Research and Innovative Technology Administration

DOT's operating administrations coordinate with other agencies in
specific areas of mutual interest. Among the agencies with which
the administrations collaborate are the following:

Department of Commerce : Within the Department of Commerce (DOC),
a number of agencies conduct research relevant to transportation.
Current DOT efforts with DOC include: (1) FHWA work with the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on
high-performance concrete; (2) FHWA - National Weather Service
research on road weather observations; (3) an FRA - NIST effort on
the fire safety of passenger rail car materials; and (4) the Joint
Planning and Development Office (JPDO), through which the FAA,
DOC, NASA, DOD, and DHS are defining the future air transportation
system.