"We're supportive of deploying automation improvements in the ATC system, but it's more than that: you have to provide compatible capability on the aircraft to interact with the equipment on the ground and with the controller," Steve Brown, the NBAA's senior vice president of operations, said in answer to B&CA's query on the business aviation organization's position on automation.

It starts with a premise: If we have the kind of technology that can allow: -UPS or FedEx to automatically track "smart" packages in real time anywhere in the world . . . -A CIA agent on horseback in Afghanistan to call Foggy Bottom on his pocket satphone and order (a) feed for his horse, (b) a Western saddle (because the wooden Afghan one was killing him) and (c) a precision bombing raid by a B2 based in Missouri . . .

"The core idea -- automation capabilities that are so robust that they would increase productivity levels so you could reduce controllers -- isn't something that is done at the flick of a switch at midnight," the NBAA's Steve Brown, senior vice president of operations, told B&CA in answer to why it takes so long to change FAA ATC infrastructure. From 1998 to 2004, Brown oversaw the entire ATC system prior to his retirement from the FAA.