NextGen
Introduced in 2004, the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiative to modernize the nation’s antiquated air traffic control systems to make air travel safer, more efficient, and more economical.
To ensure that future air travel becomes safer and more efficient, and to ease economic and environmental concerns, the government signed a law in December 2003 that endorsed a Next Generation Air Transportation System.
NextGen integrates existing technologies, policies, and procedures with newly developed ones to achieve the goals of reducing delays, saving fuel, and lowering aircraft exhaust emissions.
The key to this “modernization” of the National Airspace System (NAS) is an upgrade from an Air Traffic Management (ATM) system that is decades old.
This NextGen overhaul will take ATM from the current legacy systems — inexact ground-based radar and inefficient point-to-point information sharing — to satellite-based technology, which allows for precise tracking of aircraft and a collaborative decision-making process utilizing real-time shared data.
Modernizing the NAS is an immense, multi-agency undertaking that will continue to evolve with much of the work being developed, tested, and implemented here in Daytona Beach, FL.
In 2008, the Florida NextGen Test Bed (FTB) was established and the FAA contracted Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) to operate the facility. The FTB, an agile research and integration facility, is designed to allow government, industry, and academia to showcase their ideas and technologies in a NextGen National Airspace System (NAS) environment.
Collaboration Partners
The Next Generation Air Transportation System is a massive, multi-decade undertaking that requires the collaboration of countless agencies, corporations, and individuals. That spirit of cooperation for the purpose of advancing NextGen concepts and procedures is on display daily in our ERAU NextGen Programs.
Research & Demonstrations
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has contracted Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) to operate and to work with industry in support of FAA-assigned NextGen research tasks and demonstrations.
ERAU NextGen Programs
ERAU NextGen Programs are conducted in Florida at one of the three FAA facilities around the country that are responsible for the testing, development, and integration of new NextGen technologies into the national air transportation system.
Collaboration Partners
The Next Generation Air Transportation System is a massive, multi-decade undertaking that requires the collaboration of countless agencies, corporations, and individuals. That spirit of cooperation for the purpose of advancing NextGen concepts and procedures is on display daily in our ERAU NextGen Programs.
Research & Demonstrations
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has contracted Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) to operate and to work with industry in support of FAA-assigned NextGen research tasks and demonstrations.
Did You Know?
$38 BILLION:
Estimated value of cumulative benefits that will be saved by aircraft operators, travelers, and the FAA in delay reductions, fuel savings, and other NextGen efficiencies through 2020.