Maybe the US should follow someone else's lead. Five years ago, Airservices Australia started a three year rollout of a system called TAAATS into Australian airspace. It runs primarily on off-the-shelf components (DEC alphas, Sony screens...) running X-windows (yay!). And it certainly didn't cost anywhere near $1.7 billion.
This system looks after 11% of the earth's surface, from Sydney's busy terminal area to some of the remotest regions on the planet. As an IFR pilot it makes me feel a lot safer knowing that ATC/Flight Service has every bit of information they need at their fingertips. Quite handy when you need to ask a busy controller a stupid question!
I was flying for five years before TAAATS, and even though as a pilot you're pretty much shielded from what goes on in ATC, you notice when you get better frequency transfers, more weather and traffic information and less holding! It is also *much* easier to submit flight plans and change them at the last minute.
As a Linux (and Windoze) programmer (my real job!), it's really easy for me to criticize crap software. TAAATS is one of the few systems I've seen up close that impressed me. You think the FAA might have bought it? Hardly...
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Maybe the US should follow someone else's lead. Five years ago, Airservices Australia started a three year rollout of a system called TAAATS into Australian airspace. It runs primarily on off-the-shelf components (DEC alphas, Sony screens...) running X-windows (yay!). And it certainly didn't cost anywhere near $1.7 billion.
This system looks after 11% of the earth's surface, from Sydney's busy terminal area to some of the remotest regions on the planet. As an IFR pilot it makes me feel a lot safer knowing that ATC/Flight Service has every bit of information they need at their fingertips. Quite handy when you need to ask a busy controller a stupid question!
I was flying for five years before TAAATS, and even though as a pilot you're pretty much shielded from what goes on in ATC, you notice when you get better frequency transfers, more weather and traffic information and less holding! It is also *much* easier to submit flight plans and change them at the last minute.
As a Linux (and Windoze) programmer (my real job!), it's really easy for me to criticize crap software. TAAATS is one of the few systems I've seen up close that impressed me. You think the FAA might have bought it? Hardly...