The FAA NextGen Project and Integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems 
Into The National Airspace System

The Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen Program was designed to meet the ever increasing demands placed on the air transportation industry. The goals of the NextGen project seeks to combine the latest technology in order to assist aircraft utilizing our nations National Air Space in saving fuel costs, time, money, and introduce greater safety as stated by the Federal Aviation Administration “integrating a number of innovative technologies will enhance safety, shave minutes off all flight times, and clear the environment from unnecessary emissions” (FAA, 2013, 00:39).
NextGen seeks to improve future aviation operation in the National Airspace System by reducing airline traffic disorganization in relation to time and takeoff flight delays on the tarmac and the runways. The savings in fuel will be realized by decreasing the idle time in which aircraft would be waiting for the control tower to provide the authorization to travel on the runway. The Federal Aviation Administration states “cutting taxi time by 7,000 hours, and saving 1.6 billion gallons of fuel ad reduce carbons by 16 million tons produces a savings of 38 billion dollars” (FAA, 2013, 1:16). The use of NextGen will be provide better organizing sequence times for departures as well as efficient traveling routes for aircraft.
While the aircraft is in flight, the aircraft will provide its exact location of travel through the use of satellite based tracking, as opposed to radar based tracking. The technology will also provide location information between each aircraft as stated by the Federal Aviation Administration “pinpoint locations of all aircraft in the sky will allow more planes to share the same airspace while reducing the risk of error as your place reaches cruising altitude” (FAA, 2013, 1:47).
The NextGen program seeks to make the future of air travel and its operations more efficient and beneficial for the consumer and for the environment while producing favorable returns for the air travel industry.
The future integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems is also an option of consideration for the Federal Aviation Administration. The ongoing technological developments for Unmanned Aircraft Systems to enable safe travel and co-occupying the National Air Space with manned aircraft is an issue which must addressed and shown to be safe. According to the Federal Aviation Administration UAS Roadmap “The FAA perspective provides a description of the information the FAA needs from R&D performers in order to enable fully integrated UAS operations in the NextGen NAS” (FAA, 2012, p. 7).
The Federal Aviation Administration must ensure the public that Unmanned Aircraft Systems are safely able to travel with manned aircraft in the National Air Space. Companies and developers of unmanned aircraft technology must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration, the ability of both platforms to safely share and travel among each other, without unsafe incidents.
The Unmanned Aircraft System must demonstrate the ability to operate safely and ensure the upmost level of safety before being allowed in the National Air Space. According to the Federal Aviation Administration Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap UAS must demonstrate sense and avoid safety measures across “large flying UAS in low traffic environments, other various UAS systems, in low density and mixed interactions, and in high density terminals and metroplex areas” (FAA, 2012, p. 4).


Human factor issues which may be encountered during the introduction of Unmanned Aircraft Systems into the NextGen program would encompass issues with communication, visual issues, ground control station developments, interface issues between the UAS and the operator/pilot, emergency procedure developments, and training for both unmanned aircraft system pilot/operators and manned aircraft pilots as both experience and learn any possibly unforeseen circumstances by the introduction of Unmanned Aircraft Systems into the National Air Space. 
Future missions of unmanned aircraft systems may entail extended missions into space exploration. The unmanned space system does not have the limitations introduced by the human astronaut and therefore can remain in space longer, and travel longer distances. Marshall, Barnhart, Hottman, Shappee, and Most, (2011) state with regards to space exploration “the last 40-plus years have demonstrated the advantages of being able to explore other planes without having to consider the limitation of human physiology” (Marshall et al., 2011, p. 191).
Furthermore, the reliability and improvements of unmanned aircraft systems is paving the way for expanded uses in other sectors besides the military. Cooke, Pringle, and Pedersen, (2006) further state “as improvements of UAV reliability and performance occur, civil and commercial application are emerging” (Cooke et al., 2006, p. 73).
The Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen will develop an airspace environment safe and efficient for all users, and benefit the environment we live in as well.


References

Cooke, N. J., Pringle, M. H., & Pedersen, H. (Eds.). (2006). Human factors of remotely operated vehicles. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Federal Aviation Administration. (2012, March 15). Next Generation Air Transportation System.NexGen UAS Research, Development, and Demonstration Roadmap, Retrieved from https://fas.org/irp/program/collect/uas-nextgen.pdf

Federal Aviation Administration. (2013, Feb 15). Gate to Gate NextGen Explained. YouTube,Retrieved from https://youtu.be/fadkI4JJfoE

Marshall, D. M., Barnhart, R. K., Hottman, S. B., Shappee, E., & Most, M. T. (Eds.). (2011).Introduction to unmanned aircraft systems.
Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Photo: FAA. (2017). NextGen. Reprinted from https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/works/

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