U.S. and international airspace problems continue to multiply daily... Passenger demand has grown at an unprecendented rate, at much better than the expected 4% to a high of 6-8%. As passenger demands increase so does the demand for air carrier access to already constrained terminal airspace. The problem is not so much the airspace as it is the terminal facility, specifically at the runway. Competition for already scarce runway occupancy time is growing. Even with the implementation of ATM tools as the Center-TRACON Automation Tool (CTAS), the Final Approach Spacing Tool (FAST) and Surface Movement Advisor (SMA) the analogy often heard considering the "Free Flight" concept is like trying to funnel an eight lane highway into a one car garage. Aircraft mix, numbers of different types of aircraft with their different seating capacities and disparate inherent performance characteristics, requires separate solutions to spacing and traffic management. There are no more easy solutions like "build more runways." Where? New. innovative solutions must be developed, explored and implemented. A new paradigm must be extablished. We can not afford the luxury of waiting for the aviation gridlock to happen. Mr. Neil Kinnock, EU Transport Commissioner said that "The market is developing so fast that we need to develop now a strategy for the future." Consider for that new strategy two concepts: new aircraft types such as the tiltrotor, a high performance turboprop with its unique capability to takeoff and land vertically if needed, and an already proven (FAA/Ransome Airlines - 1981) concept of airspace management and operation using simultaneous, converging instrument approaches (SCIA), LNAV departure/arrival routes and separate final approach and takeoff areas (FATOs) appropriately named Simultaneous and Non-Interfering or SNI. The combination of these has tremendous potential to alleviate existing and future delays and to provide for increased capacity.
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