Aviation, much like the rest of the world, is experiencing an information revolution. We have become connected electronically through all kinds of devices, leading to large-scale growth in available data. Rapid growth has resulted in these technologies reaching a level of maturity that allows for their use in safety-centric industries, such as air traffic management (ATM).
These changes rapidly and easily bring us back to the original Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) envisioned. Introduced in 2004, the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, was a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiative to modernize the nation’s antiquated air traffic control systems to make air travel safer, more efficient, and more economical. The government signed a law in December 2003 that endorsed a Next Generation Air Transportation System, envisioned to integrate existing technologies, policies, and procedures with newly developed ones to achieve the goals of reducing delays, saving fuel, and lowering aircraft exhaust emissions. This NextGen overhaul took ATM from the current legacy systems — inexact ground-based radar and inefficient point-to-point information sharing — to satellite-based technology, which allows for precise tracking of aircraft and a collaborative decision-making process utilizing real-time shared data. During the NextGen process, a need was realized for a facility where industry, academia and government could come together to integrate, test and demonstrate some of these NextGen supporting technologies.
History of the FTB
The ERAU NextGen Programs has its origins in work conducted by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and members of an Industry Consortium on the Integrated Airport Initiative (IAI), which began in 2006. The IAI project was aimed at demonstrating emerging concepts and capabilities related to NextGen within the scope of air traffic control, as well as airport and airline operations.
Leveraging the work and contributions of the IAI, the FAA established the ERAU NextGen Programs at a government facility while maintaining a cooperative relationship with IAI industry members. The team has continued to support the needs of the FAA while building a solid technological capability.
In 2008, the Florida Test Bed (FTB) was established, and the FAA contracted Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) to operate the facility. The FTB is an agile research and integration facility, designed to allow government, industry, and academia to showcase their ideas and technologies in the FAA National Airspace System (NAS) environment. The FTB started with NextGen tasks and is continuing to conduct research and development and concept demonstrations in exciting fields such as uncrewed aircraft, commercial space, cybersecurity, trajectory-based operations (TBO), international civil aviation organization (ICAO) concepts, connected aircraft, and many more areas.