If a concept called “free flight” takes off, those one-way streets could become threedimensional superhighways early in the next millennium. The current system may seem orderly, but it’s not efficient. Since planes can’t pass each other and aren’t allowed to stray from the often circuitous airways, the system wastes time, fuel and, ultimately, money-an estimated $8.5 billion a year. In free flight, navigational satellites would help pilots themselves choose the most efficient route, altitude and speed for their planes. The airlines and the FAA are both onboard, and a congressional task force that studied the idea in 1995 proposed its implementation by 2010. “The sky isn’t crowded at all; it is air-traffic control that’s crowded,” says United Airlines systems manager Bill Cotton, considered the “father” of free flight. “This is nothing more than reducing the unnecessary restrictions to right.”
The foundation of free flight is already in place: the Global Positioning System (GPS), a network of 24 satellites launched by the Defense Department starting in the late ’70s. The orbiting satellites would give pilots precise information about their position and the positions of other aircraft, while digital transmitters would automatitally swap this data between aircraft and the ground. Air-traffic controllers would ……… become managers, intervening only around airports and in case of emergency. To avoid crashes, two imaginary, electronically defined zones would be projected around each plane. A breach in the outer layer, called the “alert zone,” would trigger a traffic warning inside the cockpit, prompting the pilot to prevent a further in: trusion into the plane’s milewide tuner layer, called the “protected zone.”
Argue that implementing free flight would be tougher than stretching your legs in a coach-class window seat. The main obstacle is the cost: estimates hover around $10 billion, and no one knows who would pay for outfitting smaller planes and ground centers. Though it’s generally conceded that free flight would be at least as safe as the …… present system, another potential stumbling block is the uneasiness of air-traffic con: trollers. Understandably nervous that the new technology could lead to downsizing, many have been openly critical of free flight. Their union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, has cautiously endorsed the idea while trying to block any move to cut jobs. “There’s no way we can get to free flight without increasing the capacity of airports and increasing the presence of air-traffic controllers,” says the union’s technology coordinator, Dick Swuager.
Still, everyone acknowledges that the current system needs to be improved. Air traffic is expected to grow annually by 5 percent over the next 20 years, putting further strain on the already overtasked controllers. And the potential benefits of free flight to passengers are enticing: shorter flights and lower fares. An FAA trial called the National Route Program, which allows planes above 29,000 feet and 200 miles from an airport to chart their own courses, has already saved $40 million for the industry this year alone. “It’s been the most successful program the FAA has put forward,” says Monte Belger, the associate administrator for air-traffic services at the FAA. That sounds promising. Now if they could only do something about legroom.
