GPS-GNSS Implementation and Institutional Change: A Critical Examination of the Technology - Forcing, Institutional Change Hypothesis and the Role of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission

Arthur Shantz

Abstract:	The objective of this paper is to determine how changes in funding for air traffic and other Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) services created by the recommendations of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission (NCARC) might affect GPS-GNSS implementation. Why would a user-fee system, for example, increase resources for GPS-GNSS implementation, or the absence of such a funding scheme reduce the benefits and increase the costs of implementation? This paper found that a consensus of airspace user groups supporting a user fee for additional FAA funding is critical to full GPS-GNSS implementation, and that such a consensus is lacking in 1997. User perceptions of other critical issues like the usefulness of equipping for satellite-based CNS, FAA’s ability to manage infrastructure modernization, or the cost of existing operational procedures, shape their reactions to institutional concerns about budget crises, aviation safety, and the much heralded demand for future air traffic capacity. On balance, this paper found that Colson’s technology-forcing-institutional- change hypothesis did not explain the need for the NCARC, nor a desire for user fees to augment FAA funding.’ Moreover, the likely congressional response to the user-fee recommendation of the NCARC in 1997 will not represent a paradigm shift in the way air traffic services are provided, but continued FAA problems transitioning the architecture to the future airspace system.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1997) June 30 - 2, 1997 Albuquerque, NM
Pages:	145 - 152
Cite this article:	Shantz, Arthur, "GPS-GNSS Implementation and Institutional Change: A Critical Examination of the Technology - Forcing, Institutional Change Hypothesis and the Role of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission," Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1997), Albuquerque, NM, June 1997, pp. 145-152.
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