Why the JPDO?

In the 2003, the Congress in the FAA Reauthorization directed the formation of an organization called the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO).  It began with no staff, no director, and was, for all practical purposes, more notional than it was real.  But the Congress knew what it wanted.  They were sold on the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).  They saw satellite based navigation, advanced digital communications, and sophisticated management of weather information, as the wave of the future.  Indeed, many saw this as a leveraging of technology that already existed.

But they saw an even greater need as well.

It was more than just systems.  To them NextGen was an issue for the entire National Air Transportation System.  It was a national issue that required a multi-agency approach.  They could see a role for DHS in working with security issues, a role for DOD, both in borrowing on the considerable Defense Department research efforts and in resolving issues of joint airspace management.  They saw a role for the Department of Commerce in aligning weather research and vastly improving the way aviation weather data is gathered, processed and used by pilots and controllers.  And they saw a need to involve NASA, the nation’s principal aeronautics research organization, as early as possible in the development of NextGen.

That, in a nutshell, is the JPDO mission.  This blog is an ecletic, semi-official update, that lets our stakeholders get a quick snapshot concerning whats going on at the JPDO.

We welcome your comments and input.

Contact us at: 9-awa-ato-jpdo-partnership@faa.gov

Or visit us at: www.jpdo.gov