NextGen

NextGen has four pillars: economic impact, sustainability, flexibility, and safety. Economic impact deals with how aviation has impacted the U.S. economy and creates millions of jobs. With NextGen it will help make the industry more efficient and possibly bring in more money. Sustainability is a pillar because it benefits the environment because NextGen will help to reduce the fuel burn and decrease carbon dioxide. There is also the possibility of having aircraft be quieter for the neighborhoods around the airport. Flexibility is that now routing is more direct which will help in fuel burn and can help with avoiding bad weather and other delays. Safety is always important in the aviation world. NextGen plans to have more accurate aircraft location information for ATC and for pilots flying. Weather information and information on airspace to help with communication between the controllers and those on the plane.

Out of these four pillars I would say that obviously Safety is the first priority next to flexibility because that also aids in a higher level of safety. Then economic impact to help bring in money followed by sustainability.

The next hurdle to jump with NextGen is how is it going to be funded? As said previously the aviation industry already brings in money and helps to grow the economy. I say why not say thanks for working so hard and actually trying to help the U.S. become better financially, unlike other programs. Plus if NextGen can prove it will have even more of an economic impact then why not invest? If not there is always the standard bake sale.

As for my future who would not be for safer and more modern way to travel. This article even goes into detail about how politicians are for this as well. The big problem right now to deal with is of course the funding, but once that is taken care of hopefully we can see an even bigger impact on the safety of air travel and the economy.

Retirement Age

Since the dawn of time the retiring age for pilots has been 60 years, until recently when a new bill was passed in 2007. Today the mandatory retiring age is 65, which could have happened for multiple reason. It could have been that people would feel safer with a well experienced pilot on board flying the aircraft, or that there could have been a shortage and in order to take care of the problem just increase retirement age by five years to buy us some more time. My personal favorite is that someone was paid off, but who really knows what happens behind closed doors.

How this effects everything five years from now is that at the age of 60 a pilot would have to retire. But now they have five more years to go, and it gives them five more years to share their stories and pass down their knowledge. For me personally I love that part, I enjoy listening to peoples stories and experiences. I learn so much from others, plus if I still have my medical at the age of 60 I will know that I have five more years of flying.