During a Wednesday afternoon panel, some of the most experienced and innovative aeronautical minds weighed in on how government, space, military, and industry initiatives will impact the future of American aviation over the next decade.
Steve Bradford of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), discussed innovation from the government standpoint. He said one of the FAA’s top priorities is providing information to help with decision-making for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). “Our goal is to try to figure out how to exchange information in almost real-time,” he said. That includes breaking down “the paradigm of paper and voice” in favor of digital data.
ATCA President and CEO Brian Bruckbauer, who is a recently retired Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force, discussed the future of military aviation. Fifth-generation fighters and some weapons require a lot of airspace to test, and many military facilities don’t have that space, he said. Consequently, the Department of Defense (DoD) is working closely with the FAA and NASA on airspace issues, he said.
The DoD is also prioritising collaboration with private industry. Many small businesses have had problems navigating government red tape, but new DoD initiatives have yielded Incredible ideas from small companies, Bruckbauer said.
Maverick Innovation Award Winner Dr. Chip Meserole, Boeing Research and Technology, focused on the future of aviation from an industry standpoint. “Safety and efficiency have always driven aviation goals. But on top of that, we now have sustainability,” he said.
Meserole explained that Boeing has four pillars for sustainability innovation, which are:
• Replacing fleets with newer aircraft that are 15 to 20 percent less emitting;
• Improving network operational efficiency to reduce CO2 emissions;
• Focusing on alternative energy production, including green carbon and green hydrogen; and,
• Prioritising technology innovation, including electric aircraft for short ranges, and potentially, hydrogen-fueled aircraft for medium or long ranges.
Sustainability initiatives also help attract new employees, especially software engineers, Meserole said. “We have to compete with the tech companies, and part of that is having the excitement of innovation that young people are most interested in,” he said. “They also come in with values, like sustainability. Most of them want to do something that’s important for everyone.”
Panel moderator Abigail Glenn-Chase, ATCA and World ATM Congress, pointed out that collaboration has been key for American aviation initiatives, and asked panelists how they will achieve that in the future.
Dr. Parimal Kopardekar, NASA, said NASA has been working on aviation aeronautics since it was founded in the 1950s. In more recent years, the FAA developed a structure that allowed NASA to bring the FAA into its research and make it more meaningful. This helps NASA determine the most applicable research, Kopardekar said. “Our research has evolved positively over time, and we’re much more integrated from research to reality.”
Bradford joked that the FAA used to look at NASA research as a “pretty baby but an ugly kid.”
“Now, collaboration has been so successful that it’s gone beyond ATM and AAM, and we now have an R&D structure. We’ve learned how to make a commitment to each other to make research work more effectively,” he said.
Boeing had a cost-share contract with the FAA that started off many of the presets of NextGen, Meserole said. Boeing also has a research and technology agreement with NASA to work together on both air traffic system initiatives and air vehicles.
Bradford said FAA collaborations with industry are also focusing on UAS.
“We have always welcomed new entrants into the airspace, but we don’t have an infrastructure to support services before 400 feet. Industry is going to have to help, and we have to provide guidance and policy to make it equitable,” he said.