Researchers in the United States and Europe are working out standard approaches for communications, navigation, and surveillance. This will allow aircraft crossing the Atlantic to need only one set of avionics to interact with both U.S. and European networks.
This past summer, senior Air Traffic Management (ATM) research scientists from both sides of the Atlantic met in Napa, Calif., for a biennial seminar to present technical papers and work on key issues facing the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and the similar, but not identical, Single European Sky ATM Research Program (SESAR).
Several of the papers presented at the conference involved teams of European and American researchers collaborating to analyze a particular issue.
The FAA has more than doubled research and development funding for NextGen from the fiscal 2007 budget to the request for fiscal 2010.
In Europe, the development phase now underway is being led by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, a public-private partnership funded by Eurocontrol, the European Commission and industry.
