The international aviation industry has embraced a revolutionary future concept of
operations known as "free flight". The free flight concept allows each aircraft to travel
between destinations using flexible fuel efficient routes rather than the current fixed jet routes.
Flying the present inefficient fixed routes costs the airlines millions of dollars
annually in fuel and personnel costs. Additionally, because there are only a limited
number of the current "highways in the sky", aircraft in the United States and Europe
regularly experience delays waiting for their turn to access the jet-routes. This present
system also constrains future air traffic growth, particularly in oceanic airspace.
To address these deficiencies, direct pilot-to-controller communications are required in
oceanic airspace managed by the United States. This functional requirement for direct
pilot-to-controller communications is not being met by the present oceanic air-to-ground
communications system.
Using a systems engineering approach, this project determines the feasibility of
extending domestic air traffic control communication systems into the U.S. managed
oceanic airspace over the Gulf of Mexico. Two feasible alternatives are evaluated for
achieving this capability.
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