GAO Looks at FAA's Technological Progress | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-02.10.25

Airborne-NextGen-02.11.25

Airborne-Unlimited-02.12.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-02.13.25

Airborne-Unlimited-02.07.25

Tue, Nov 04, 2003

GAO Looks at FAA's Technological Progress

This Report Probably Won't Change Your Perception

The FAA's own structure and culture are largely responsible for the huge gobs of twine that seem to wrap around the axles of all moving parts at the agency, a just-released Government Accounting Office report (GAO-04-227T) seems to say. The quotes below are all straight from the report (subheads are ours); we encourage you to look at the whole thing, to get a more-complete picture --ed.

Over the years, systemic management issues, including inadequate management controls and human capital issues, have contributed to the cost overruns, schedule delays, and performance shortfalls that FAA’s major ATC projects have consistently experienced. These problems occurred, in large part, because FAA lacked the information technology and financial management systems that would have helped it reliably determine the projects’ technical requirements and estimate and control their costs and schedules. In addition, organizational culture issues discouraged collaboration among technical experts and users, and frequent changes in FAA’s leadership—seven different Administrators and Acting Administrators in the first 10 years—hampered the modernization efforts.

There's hope:

FAA has taken steps to improve the management of its ATC modernization efforts and has made progress. For example, it implemented a costeffective, incremental development approach that avoided costly late-stage changes. In addition, it has fully or partially implemented over 30 GAO recommendations designed to improve its management controls and address human capital issues. The Congress also extended the term of the FAA Administrator to 5 years, providing for greater continuity and stability, and enacted legislation designed to bring the benefits of performance management to ATC modernization.

Living in 'Interesting Times'

FAA faces a number of challenges in fully implementing recommendations that GAO and others have made to improve its management controls and address human capital issues. FAA also faces the challenge of becoming a more efficient and accountable performance-based air traffic organization.

How bad is it?

Initially FAA estimated that its ATC modernization efforts would cost $12 billion and could be completed over 10 years. Now, two decades and $35 billion later, FAA expects to need another $16 billion through 2007 to complete key projects, for a total cost of $51 billion.

FMI: www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-227T

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (02.11.25): Handoff

Handoff An action taken to transfer the radar identification of an aircraft from one controller to another if the aircraft will enter the receiving controller's airspace and radio >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (02.11.25)

Aero Linx: P-47 Thunderbolt Pilot's Association The P47Pilots.com website is dedicated to preserving the memories of the men and women who flew the P-47 Thunderbolt "Jug" in World >[...]

ANN FAQ: Q&A 101

A Few Questions AND Answers To Help You Get MORE Out of ANN! 1) I forgot my password. How do I find it? 1) Easy... click here and give us your e-mail address--we'll send it to you >[...]

NTSB Final Report: SlipStream International Genesis

Airplane Veered Left Of The Runway And Struck Trees Before It Came To Rest In A Grass Area Analysis: The student pilot was conducting a solo flight when he was unable to keep the a>[...]

Airborne 02.05.25: No Outs 4 ATC, Sporty's Acquires, 'Black' Boxes

Also: NOTAM System Restored, Textron Mil Trainers, Axiom Space, Police Rescues Cirrus Pax The Trump administration’s attempt at downsizing the federal workforce has run into >[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC