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FAA’s Free Flight Modernization Initiatives |
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© 2000 The MITRE Corporation
B.G. Smith
8 October 2000
The MITRE Corporation
Center for Advanced Aviation System Development
McLean, Virginia 22102
FAA’s Free Flight
Modernization Initiatives
An Update on:
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© 2000 The MITRE Corporation
Abstract
In the early 1990’s, airlines recorded record losses, most notably due to traffic delays. The Air Transport
Association estimated the cost of delays alone at $3.5B per year - some avoidable, some unavoidable. In
August 1993, the National Committee to Ensure a Strong Airline Industry reported, “…In the history of
American business, there has never been a major commercial industry whose minute-by-minute operating
efficiency was capped by the daily operating efficiency of the federal government - except for the airlines.”
There was a growing recognition that the ATM system in the US was not making significant progress toward
taking advantage of advances in CNS and computing technology. These concerns gave birth to Free Flight.
"Free Flight" is a concept that reflects an operating environment wherein airspace users are granted greater
freedom in planning and operating flights in order to reduce operating costs and enhance the safety and
capacity of the national airspace system (NAS). Free Flight is the core concept underlying current FAA
modernization plans (NAS Architecture 4.0, FAA, January 1999).
"Free Flight Phase 1" (FFP1) is an FAA implementation program to expedite the fielding of low-risk,
potentially high benefit capabilities at selected locations as a first step in fulfilling the concepts of Free
Flight. Begun in 1998, FFP1 will complete the implementation of five new air traffic management capabilities
at over 25 sites by 2002.
“Free Flight Phase 2” (FFP2) is a follow-on program to FFP1 designed to sustain the momentum of FFP1 and
add additional capabilities to the National Airspace System. Some FFP1 capabilities will be geographically
expanded and new capabilities will be deployed. The most notable new capability will be CPDLC.
“Safe Flight 21 is an FAA Free Flight implementation program that implements advanced communication,
navigation, and surveillance capabilities for safety and system capacity enhancements. The primary
implementing technologies for Safe Flight 21 activities are Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast
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