Sec'y Mineta Announces Joint Effort to Design Future Air System

In a speech January 27 to the Aero Club of Washington, DC, Secretary Mineta announced that DOT/FAA, in concert with other Federal agencies, is designing the Next Generation Air Transportation System, "a cleaner, quieter system based on 21st century technology that will offer seamless security and added capacity to relieve congestion and secure America's place as global leader in aviation's second century."

In his speech, the Secretary discusses this planning initiative, which is spearheaded by the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO). Working in close collaboration with the Departments of Transportation, Commerce, Defense, and Homeland Security, NASA and the Office of Science and Technology Policy and other experts from the public and private sectors, the JPDO will develop a National Plan for the Next Generation Air Transportation System.

Mineta said the JPDO is developing the ideas and technologies that will take us to the aviation system of the future, adding that a hallmark of the JPDO, as advertised on its website, is "new ideas are welcome."

To read a .pdf of the speech, click here.