U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx unveiled a milestone on Thursday, with the final installation of En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) technology in air traffic control centers nationwide.
ERAM is the foundation for technical operations at 20 of the Federal Aviation
Administration’s (FAA’s) en route air traffic control centers. The
system operates display screens used by
air traffic controllers to manage aircraft in flight and is part of the foundation for NextGen systems. The first ERAM system began operations in Salt Lake City Center in March
2012,and the final installation was finished recently at New York
Center.
“Looking at the future of air travel, we know that there will be more planes in our skies and more people in our airports, and in order to meet this challenge, we must integrate cutting-edge technology into our aviation system,” Foxx said. “ERAM is a major step forward in our relentless efforts to develop and implement NextGen. With this new technology, passengers will be able to get to their destinations faster, safer and have a smoother ride – all while burning less fuel to get there.”
ERAM can process identity, flight path, altitude and velocity, among other pieces of data and will be implemented further into other technological systems used by the FAA, including the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, which provides radar information on aircraft in flight — and Data Comm, which aims to keep communication lines open and uncluttered. Both of these systems will see greater ERAM integration.
