"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 concept of "security on the road" took on new meaning Oct. 9, 2005, when an unlocked Cessna Citation VII was heisted from a general aviation airport ramp and flown in radio silence at night through a major air traffic area to a landing two states away. There, five passengers allegedly boarded, and the aircraft was taken on a second nocturnal joyride before being returned to the airport and abandoned.