For Zaphod

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's a bummer/
guess we gotta do away with the old VOR and ILS for flying cars haha...

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: imitator

They're retiring 74 VORs by 2020, 234 more by 2025 for a total of 308.

Just like they removed all the phone booths. They can't have people talking to each other privately, anonymously.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: ownbestenemy1

And the FAA will almost certainly continue to certify systems into the NAS, even when privatized. They're not going to lose their oversight of the system, since that is their primary reason for existing.

Raytheon is doing the upgrades at just about all the airports for the FAA. They've also done quite a bit of other work for them. Hughes is another one that does a lot of work for the FAA, including ILS and VOR.

There is definately going to be growing pains and could a "two steps back" before taking that first step forward.

I think Zaph has hit the nail on the head, in order to modernize and upgrade systems, this will be a significant positive. The FAA has tended to react and change when necessary and that doesn't bode well for future technical logical improvements.

The downside is something already mentioned by F4guy, the major airlines and their respective hubs will surely benefit more than the General Aviation stakeholders. Not only oversight by the Feds will be needed but stronger organizations that support the needs of non-major airlines.

A few things have to be added to the discussion besides the success or lack of success with other countries that operate in the private domain.

The FAA already started contracting out Air Traffic Control towers in the 90's, most of the less busy or smaller airports that had much less activity.

Space flight is moving in this direction, not only for space tourism but for spacelift support, ISS resupply and satellite deployments.

The space flight ops are contending with airspace constraints with normal flows of traffic so it's not just the airports that potentially make out better but access to airspace will also be important for the non-major airlines and genreral aviation.

The smaller operations and private pilots could take a big hit with cost if they are to compete with the major airlines.