'State of the art' air traffic control system will be unveiled in the 'next couple days,' Duffy says

To create a brand new “state of the art” air traffic control system in less than ninety days is phenomenal. Unless there was already extensive development and testing done, I would be surprised to see something unveiled in the next couple of days.
Perhaps Mr Duffy is just alluding to an idea he has for air traffic control…

It will be a fantastic system. The greatest ATC system in the history of aviation. It will be a perfect system the likes of which have never been seen before. It will be completely finished and operational in 2042.

The system desperately needs to be replaced, but creating something this complex brings a great deal of risk. It's a worthwhile project, but I fear there will be many problems and delays.

A new state-of-the-art ATC system is just around the corner, and always will be.

So where was all this rush when he was in office before? Every administration ignores this is issue. Now we have an accident and all the sudden it's full speed ahead. Spent 32 years in ATC and seen this song and dance before. Here is one pie in the sky project that was a money drain. Be sure to look at the pdf.


https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA210451

NextGen was "just around the corner" 30 years ago...

I think the point that concerns me is the "give us all the money up front."

The last time the "tech bros" decided to fix ATC under the STARS program, it didn't go so well. They didn't involve the users (ATC controllers) in the planning process, so there were major human factors issues that had to be fixed, increasing costs by more than $1 billion and leading to years of delays in the STARS rollout. Maybe Duffy should try not to repeat history here? This isn't just a word processor app we're talking about—it's a complex system that has to work 100% of the time to keep aluminum from raining down on houses

come on.... stop the political crap

New air traffic control system? So, does that mean every airline around the world that flies into US airspace will have to refit their flight decks with new systems to integrate with the new system too?
I believe ,more likely than not, it is pie in the sky talk. Maybe the plan is to put louder horns,rear view mirrors, and turn signals on all planes, because, well, you know, they don't have them now and cars have them, so it must be important for cars and without it planes are less safe. And the horn on planes is tiny. It needs to be the highest , the bestest horn ever heard.

This would be one of those huge software infrastructure projects where "you completely remodel the house while the tenants still live in it." The current ATC system must continue to meet all of its requirements until it is completely replaced. So every step of the phased rollout of new technology must not adversely affect the current ATC. Software mega-projects with these kind of restraints have a very poor record of success. In the best case, this project will go wildly over budget and implementation time. And in the worst case, the consequences are unthinkable.

“Brand new” doesn’t mean it wasn’t being developed for the past two decades. Anyone can announce something as “new” when they mean “newly announced”.

Personally, it gives me comfort to know that controllers “stand in the tower and look out with binoculars”. I wouldn’t call a system “state of the art” where terminal controllers sit in a windowless building directing traffic similar to a Center facility. Even scarier is the thought of having some of President Musk’s “SpaceX engineers that are helping us”! We’ve all seen enough of his rockets explode (2 already in 2025) that I don’t have unwavering confidence in that part of this plan.

What complete BS. Any time a big talker hits engineering realities, reality is going to win. Expect a lot of fanfare and then either nothing actually executed, or worse, a dysfunctional nightmare. I used to execute complex technical projects for a living, and would frequently have to rein in overenthusiastic managers with big ideas because that's just not how it works, unless a lot more work than you think is done first.

I don't normally comment much on this site since I'm not an aviation specialist. But I do have 30 years of experience in software development as a programmer, PM, and architect.

This is just so full of BS, it is beyond comprehension. A moderately complex gov system redesign takes a couple of years at a bare minimum and easily double that. An ATC system is magnitudes more complex than a 'moderately complex' system. It's two to three years in basic design and scoping alone. Then putting it together and marrying it to even more complex hardware systems, also being redesigned or built from scratch, is several more years. And both the hardware and software tech changes during the period.

It's even more bizarre when they he says they'll show it to Trump in the next couple days. As if Trump with a history of a limited attention span, or 95% of the population for that matter, would have a clue what they are looking at.

Along with a completely ridiculous statement about "deploying this really fast" and "Congress has to give us all the money up front".

But have no fear, they have SpaceX engineers helping out. For what, three months? Are these the same level of engineers that don't have a clue how to interpret the SSA database? This isn't just playing around with a $200M toy rocket, this puts thousands of lives at risk if it has a "rapid unscheduled disassembly".

This should be...interesting. A new ATC system designed by kids who know nothing about aviation.Glad I'm not flying anywhere soon.🙄😬

Are we to believe such a complex system has been thoroughly designed and reviewed in just a few weeks? No, that just doesn’t happen. At best this is a back of the envelope, napkin sketch of something that was dreamed up by whiz kids with no practical experience in the real world.

I don’t think anything will ever replaced an experienced human looking out the window with binoculars.

Heard promises from this one before - will believe it when I see see it but past results suggest that we don’t hold our breath

I used to be told that software problems would be addressed "in the next release" and that would happen "in two weeks". This never actually took place. Apparently such complex hardware and software issues can be fixed "in a couple of days". What are they smoking at the DOT?

Duffy said the key to upgrading the nation’s air traffic control system is "speed."

No, it's safety above all.

I'm taking the bus.

What bullshit. If Space-X (Musk) is involved, it will be crap, just like his Cyberjunk, and at least 90% of what comes out of this administration is straight up mendacious.

You know, if there are no air traffic controllers, they can’t mess anything up. The plan is perfect!

So we're back to this garbage again, and we didn't even need another 9/11 to do it? I'm so tired of this Bozo telling me how I'm less free as an American every day under his nauseating "leadership". I'll listen to the State Dept advisories, not a politician who should be banned from the White House.

We've seen this much too often! At best, what we will see is a "plan" and possibly even a "plan" to develop a "plan".

And, at the risk of sounding like a heretic, I suggest now is the time to move toward the privatization of "the delivery of air traffic services" including the controller and maintenance workforces as well as system acquisition like the rest of the world has moved to as these functions are not inherently governmental. Regulation and Safety Oversight should remain an inherently governmental function. I also think that this would be an opportunity to eliminate the unions at the same time as, from my perspective, they have no business being in the public sector.

Let the flaming begin!

It will probably be new but not "state of the art." I believe it will be a system thrown together by the President's major campaign donor. You should know that his mantra is "run it until it breaks and then fix it."

will they have enough personal to handle the traffic

Well done, POTUS. Less than 3 months in office and yet another milestone. Is RTX still in the loop?

Do you suppose the SpaceX engineers designed it?

It's high time for the U.S. to incorporate Teleportation Technologies. Let's summon Elon for this request!

Won’t be trusting this

Hopefully developed by non-DEI real engineers.

After reading all the snide political back-and-forth, all I can say is “Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!” (Lloyd Bridges in “Airplane”, for those who don’t get the joke)

Hughes and IBM tried it to the tune of $BILLIONS over 40 years ago and it FAILED miserably. I'm sure this one will work great... in maybe 40 more years.