Quick thread about Air Traffic Control and why privatizing it is a shit-terrible idea. Note: I spent most of my career in aerospace.
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This still happens from time to time, but thanks to modern technology and training, we have improved on this.
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Controllers will know well in-advance when the flights are arriving and can begin landing procedures almost an hour before the plane arrives
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Technologies like ERAM (En-Route Automation Modernization) can predict backups in-advance and deconflict in advance.
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Check out these aircraft flying zig-zag patterns to add a handful of minutes to their flight:https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/29808/why-did-this-plane-fly-in-a-zigzag-pattern/29812 …
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All of this requires intense, standardized coordination across the national airspace, i.e. exactly the thing primed for nationalization.
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Privatization of ATC will make the NAS look more like the National Power Grid. A hopeless mess held together by duct tape and expertise.
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It will cost the airlines money. Which will mean businesses and consumers spend more money and fly less. This is bad for business.
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The mathematics behind air traffic control are some of the most interesting I've ever encountered. This is in the public benefit.
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If you ever want to dive into the intersection of ops engineering, data science, and operations research, ATC is a deep rabbit hole. FIN.
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One last thing. Here you can read about continuous descent tech from NASA: https://www.aviationsystemsdivision.arc.nasa.gov/research/tactical/eda.shtml …
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Much of this technology is developed by private industry with support from NASA and the FAA. Private industry is benefitting already.
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From research firms to the companies building the technology and software, this is an example of working government-corporate relations.
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While there is room for improvement, there is no need to sabotage the progress being made here. It's nonsensical.
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Ahhhhhh so this is why I grew up thinking holding patterns were normal, but my plane has always seemed to land immediately. That's neat.
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I have not circled in ~20 yrs. The reality is planes are full packing more passengers in, more seats, bags don't get lost anymore,
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The "racetrack" holding patterns over JFK and LGA were amazing in the 1960's. At Idlewild, now JFK, had 727s in every 45 seconds.
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Insert movie reference here: Die Hard 2. The goal was to deal w bad guys before the planes started to fall due to lack of fuel
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