WARRENDALE, Pa., 18 Dec. 2009. Officials at SAE International are forming a new Air Traffic Management (ATM) Steering Committee to address standards issues for the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and Europe's Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR. SAE International already has several technical committees developing standards related to NextGen and SESAR.
Currently, ATM-related mandates are focused on developing high-level requirements for the implementation of NextGen and SESAR; the new SAE ATM Steering Committee will address more detailed aspects of both systems.
"Throughout its history, SAE International has been at the forefront of standards development for the aviation industry," says Edward M. Manns, manager of aerospace standards for SAE International. "We continue that tradition with the creation of this new ATM Steering Committee. NextGen and SESAR systems are the future of air traffic management and SAE International will be a leader in developing an infrastructure for technical standards."
The SAE International ATM Steering Committee will include aerospace professionals from around the world, and has received commitments for participation from the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, Airbus, International Civil Aviation Organization, ITT, Rockwell Collins, CIRA, QinetiQ, General Electric, and MITRE.
Serving as the committee's chairperson will be Rick Heinrich, director of strategic initiatives for Rockwell Collins, Commercial Systems. Heinrich organized and moderated the "NextGen Avionics: Which Technologies Will Soar Higher?" webcast for SAE International in August 2009.
"These systems are extremely relevant in that they will help revolutionize how air traffic management is done in Europe, the United States and around the world," Heinrich says. "This new committee will play an important role in the safe and efficient deployment of these new technologies. One of the key roles of this committee will be to ensure that we minimize redundancy as standards are being developed, and to identify new areas where standards or guidance is necessary. One example is the area of human factors as the roles of the aircraft and automation systems evolve."
SAE International is a global association of more than 121,000 engineers and related technical experts in the automotive, aerospace, and commercial-vehicle industries.
