Boeing

Boeing Air Traffic Management (ATM) today released a document describing 16 cornerstones of a future air traffic management system. The document is the result of the latest "working-together" effort by a diverse aviation team assembled by Boeing that includes representatives from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, airlines, pilot and controller unions, general and business aviation, and suppliers, as well as Boeing ATM.

The cornerstones are synthesized from more than 170 requirements identified by the aviation stakeholder team earlier this year, and address seven strategic objectives: safety, security, system operational performance, cost, transition, environmental efficiency and global interoperability.

"It has been a privilege to be a part of this working-together team," said Matt Vance, Boeing Working Together Team program manager. "The contributions and collaboration among the participants will ultimately help make a safe system even safer, and provide far greater capability and efficiency than what we have today," he said.

According to Vance, the 16 cornerstones represent (1) the most critical stakeholder needs of a future air traffic system, (2) target levels of system performance and (3) a set of criteria by which to evaluate any future operational concept for air traffic management.

The working-together effort is an extensive collaboration intended to gather a wide range of input on the required capabilities of a new system from the various groups who will use that system. The stakeholder team held its first meeting in September 2001. Six months later it produced a system performance requirements document. This document, which outlines 174 requirements that are mapped to seven strategic objectives, served as a launching point for the cornerstones document.

In addition to this team, composed primarily of stakeholders in North America, Boeing also has initiated working-together teaming activities in Europe.

The working-together efforts will continue in three areas:

• Broadening understanding of the performance expectations for future air traffic systems, beyond the regional perspective, to those held by the global community of stakeholders.
• Benchmarking the industry work on air traffic system operational concepts to date.
• Harmonizing operational concepts for a smoother transition to a future global air traffic system.

The complete text of Cornerstones of Air Traffic Management System Performance is available on line.