The ICAO Future Air Navigation System a Global Concept for the Next Century

Norman Solat

Abstract:	In the early 198Os, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recognized the increasing limita- tions of the present air navigation systems and the need for improvements to take civil aviation into the 21st century. In 1983, ICAO established the Special Commit- tee on Future Air Navigation Systems (FANS) with the task of studying, identifying and assessing new concepts and new technology and making recommendations for the coordinated evolutionary development of air navigation over a time scale of the order of 25 years. Satellite technology was especially identified in the task, and indeed, the use of satellites is among the most attrac- tive elements of the FANS concept. Determining that the limitations of the present systems are intrinsic to the systems themselves and the problems cannot be overcome on a global scale except by new concepts and new communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) systems to support future enhance- ments to air traffic management (ATI), FANS proposed a new system concept, one which could rationally evolve over a period of years, and which recognized that the pace of change cannot be the same everywhere on the globe. ICAO recognized that implementation of the concept would require global coordination and planning on an unprecedented scale, and established a follow-on committee (FANS Phase II) to help assure a coherent cost-beneficial global implementation of the new system concept. This paper presents the system concept developed by FANS, and discusses the progress of the work currently under‘way by the FANS Phase II Committee to aid in the global implementation of the new system. That work includes not only the consideration of technical and programmatic questions, but also questions of an institutional nature.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1991) June 10 - 12, 1991 Williamsburg Hilton and National Conference Center Williamsburg, VA
Pages:	335 - 339
Cite this article:	Solat, Norman, "The ICAO Future Air Navigation System a Global Concept for the Next Century," Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1991), Williamsburg, VA, June 1991, pp. 335-339.
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