Odds and Ends in the Future

There are a couple of odd aviation stories in the news today. You might want to check them out for a glimpse of the future.

Safety Fears on No-Pilot Airplanes by Matthew Wald at The New York Times. Mr. Wald is (as far as I know) the only full-time aviation reporter at a newspaper in the entire country. I can’t say as I’ve been able to follow his coverage closely over the years but he has been there for years.

The next story is from GovernmentExecutive.com.

Labor union blasts FAA's new navigation approach

I haven’t quite got a handle on what is really going on here. The FAA can talk about replacing radars all they want but it isn’t going to happen and everybody in air traffic control (and the military) knows it. They might use ADS-B and GPS for ATC purposes but radar will still be used for national security purposes.

I think the real story is about privatization (on the sly) but I haven’t got a real handle on it so I (obviously) can’t explain it (yet.) Something is going on. And it bothers me. I’ll figure it out sooner or later.

Don Brown
October 17, 2007