Air Transportation System (Nextgen): An Annotated Bibliography
NASA. (2007). Nasa & The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). White Paper
Summary
The paper begins by asserting that whereas the current National Airspace System (NAS) is the safest mode of transportation, it has developed into a wide, multifaceted, distributed, and loosely integrated network of infrastructure, systems, and processes that lack the advantage of seamless information transfer. Due to this, the system has significant limitations in regards to operational flexibility and its general capacity; this necessitates a change of system. The proposed solution is Next Generation Air Transportation System (NexGen). On that note, the key features of NextGen include; (1) user-centered; (2) distributed decision-making; (3) it leverages the capabilities of humans to interweave it with automation; (4) scalable; (5) integrated management of safety; (6) an environmental management system. Nextgen has certain key capabilities including; (1) network-enabled information access; (2) operations and services based on performance; (3) weather integrated onto decision making; (3) adaptive and layered security; (4) provision of position, navigation and timing (PT) services; (4) Trajectory-Based Operations for aircrafts; (5) equivalent visual operations (EVO); (5) departure/super density arrivals. These features and capabilities enable NextGen to overcome the limitations of NAS thus making it a suitable replacement.
Assessment
The source is useful since it illustrates the future of aviation in an insightful way. To that extent, it reinforces the findings in other sources in a comprehensive manner. It illuminates that rotary wing vehicles have the potential to facilitate point-to-point travel, thus enabling routine air transportation to be accessible to everybody. Further it demonstrates that the Subsonic Rotary Wing project addresses the limitations of the previous system by increasing the speed, range, payload capacity, precision flight path aptitude, fuel efficiency, and environmental friendliness. In regards to environmental acceptance, the noise levels and footprint of rotor craft must be decreased significantly. Research shows that reductions of 6 dB can be realized through the mixture of procedural flight operations and rotor design. Through research and development, novel innovations will decrease the acoustic field for a wide scope of flight conditions and remove noise as a hinderance to wider commercial use. The project will facilitate design aptitude for low-noise aircraft that includes precise calculation of blade vortex interaction noise, wake/blade interaction noise, and high-speed impulsive noise. Additionally, the development of acoustic propagation methods that consider terrain, shadowing, and atmospheric impacts so that rotary wing vehicles can be augmented for minimal noise effect whilst maintaining handling and performance standards.
The paper also points to the future of research which includes assessment of innovations to enable low-noise, spiraling, ascent, and descent, and multifaceted approaches through the development of cockpit cueing for the pilot. On that note, the source is very reliable as it was written by a team of researchers from NASA. The information is objective as it is based on comprehensive studies aimed to improve the entire aviation sector. Its ultimate objective is to depict how safety in the aviation industry can be significantly improved.
Reflection
The source has been extremely useful to me since it depicts the future direction of the aviation industry Such insight is important since it will enable my research project to make a meaningful contribution to the filed irrespective of its scope. It has transformed my worldview on aviation safety as it has showed me that it is an elaborate discipline that requires deep research.
References
NASA. (2007). Nasa & The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). White Paper.