NATCA Bookshelf

4 NextGen Now | Summer 2015 Patricia Gilbert EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT NATCA NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION Paul Rinaldi PRESIDENT Since our last edition, we achieved a milestone in NextGen: the completion of En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM). The system is a crucial foundational aspect of NextGen that will allow the National Airspace System (NAS) to operate at the highest standard as future NextGen technologies — including Performance Based Navigation, Automatic Dependent Surveillance- Broadcast, and Data Communications (Data Comm) — are implemented. On April 30, NATCA National ERAM Implementation Representative Julio Henriques joined U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Huerta, and Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions Vice President and General Manager Stephanie Hill at a press conference commemorating the completion of ERAM. All the speakers emphasized that collaboration was the driving force behind the program's success, and Henriques summarized it well: "The successful processes developed with ERAM can and should be repeated in all NextGen programs," he said. "Together, NATCA and the FAA can solve any modernization issue by applying these processes." Additional exciting NextGen progress occurred on May 2, when the FAA hosted one of the most successful media events for NextGen and NATCA-FAA collaboration thus far. We were thrilled to participate in the press conference at Newark Tower (EWR) to introduce the Data Comm program and demonstrate its effectiveness and importance in improving the safety and efficiency of the EWR operation. Once again, great collaboration among NATCA, the FAA, and all stakeholders has led to a success in NextGen: the safe and effective development of a key program. Further progress has been made in TAMR; since the last edition of NextGen Now, STARS was installed at more than a half dozen facilities.

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