The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a U.S. federal government agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation which regulates civil aviation in the United States and surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic control, certification of personnel and aircraft, setting standards for airports, and protection of U.S. assets during the launch or re-entry of commercial space vehicles, powers over neighboring international waters were delegated to the FAA by authority of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers (people) who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airspace. The primary purpose of ATC worldwide is to prevent collisions, organise and expedite the flow of traffic in the air, and provide information and other support for pilots.
Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport, formerly Birmingham Municipal Airport and later Birmingham International Airport, is a civil-military airport serving Birmingham, Alabama. The airport also provides scheduled airline service for the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa metropolitan areas. It is located in Jefferson County, five miles northeast of Downtown Birmingham, near the interchange of Interstates 20 and 59.
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Articles related to aviation include:
Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport is a public use airport located 1.15 miles north of the central business district of Bullhead City, in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Mohave County. The airport is across the Colorado River and one block away from Laughlin, Nevada. Many of the rooms at Laughlin's casino-hotels offer a view of the airport. It was named 2011 Airport of the Year by the Arizona Department of Transportation.
A traffic alert and collision avoidance system, is an aircraft collision avoidance system designed to reduce the incidence of mid-air collision (MAC) between aircraft. It monitors the airspace around an aircraft for other aircraft equipped with a corresponding active transponder, independent of air traffic control, and warns pilots of the presence of other transponder-equipped aircraft which may present a threat of MAC. It is a type of airborne collision avoidance system mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organization to be fitted to all aircraft with a maximum take-off mass (MTOM) of over 5,700 kg (12,600 lb) or authorized to carry more than 19 passengers. CFR 14, Ch I, part 135 requires that TCAS I be installed for aircraft with 10-30 passengers and TCAS II for aircraft with more than 30 passengers. ACAS/TCAS is based on secondary surveillance radar (SSR) transponder signals, but operates independently of ground-based equipment to provide advice to the pilot on potentially conflicting aircraft.
Orlando Executive Airport is a public airport three miles (6 km) east of downtown Orlando, in Orange County, Florida. It is owned and operated by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) and serves general aviation.
A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction, and similar services. In common practice, an FBO is the primary provider of support services to general aviation operators at a public-use airport and is on land leased from the airport, or, in rare cases, adjacent property as a "through the fence operation". In many smaller airports serving general aviation in remote or modest communities, the town itself may provide fuel services and operate a basic FBO facility. Most FBOs doing business at airports of high to moderate traffic volume are non-governmental organizations, either privately or publicly held companies.
Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft as opposed to individual aircraft seats.
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is a professional association and lobbying group for private business aviation.
Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 was a regularly scheduled Allegheny Airlines flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to St. Louis, Missouri, with stops in Baltimore, Maryland, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana. On September 9, 1969, the aircraft serving the flight, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, collided in mid-air with a Piper PA-28 light aircraft near Fairland, Indiana. The DC-9 was carrying 78 passengers and 4 crew members, and the Piper was leased to a student pilot on a solo cross-country flight. All 83 occupants of both aircraft were killed in the accident and both aircraft were destroyed.
The Aircraft Situation Display to Industry data stream is a service made available through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Volpe Transportation Center. In 1991, data on the location of aircraft was made available by the Federal Aviation Administration to the airline industry. The ASDI stream consists of data elements which show the position and flight plans of all aircraft in U.S. and optionally, UK airspace. Elements include the location, altitude, airspeed, destination, estimated time of arrival and tail number or designated identifier of air carrier and general aviation aircraft operating on IFR flight plans within U.S. airspace. Aircraft owners and operators may request limited dissemination of such data, after which a particular aircraft is deemed "ASDI-blocked", however weak encryption of ACARS data means that in practice aircraft operational data can still be captured and decoded using simple equipment.
The Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) is a product for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) developed to monitor and react to air traffic congestion in both real time and in the future. The system is capable of issuing ground delay programs (GDPs) and ground stop programs (GSs). Ground delay programs are instituted on a particular airport or group of airports to alleviate volume or if there is severe weather.
The Capstone Program was a United States government-funded aviation safety program for the state of Alaska, primarily focusing on rural areas of the state. This joint effort – between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Alaska Pilot's Association, commercial operators, the University of Alaska, MITRE Corporation, some avionics manufacturers and individual pilots – cut the accident rate in the eastern part of Alaska by around 40%.
The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) is an ongoing United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) project to modernize the National Airspace System (NAS). The FAA began work on NextGen improvements in 2007 and plans to finish the final implementation segment by 2030. The goals of the modernization include using new technologies and procedures to increase the safety, efficiency, capacity, access, flexibility, predictability, and resilience of the NAS while reducing the environmental impact of aviation.
Single-pilot resource management (SRM) is defined as the art and science of managing all the resources available to a single-pilot to ensure that the successful outcome of the flight is never in doubt. SRM includes the concepts of Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM), Risk Management (RM), Task Management (TM), Automation Management (AM), Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) Awareness, and Situational Awareness (SA). SRM training helps the pilot maintain situational awareness by managing the automation and associated aircraft control and navigation tasks. This enables the pilot to accurately assess and manage risk and make accurate and timely decisions.
Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) is an aviation surveillance technology and form of electronic conspicuity in which an aircraft determines its position via satellite navigation or other sensors and periodically broadcasts its position and other related data, enabling it to be tracked. The information can be received by air traffic control ground-based or satellite-based receivers as a replacement for secondary surveillance radar (SSR). Unlike SSR, ADS-B does not require an interrogation signal from the ground or from other aircraft to activate its transmissions. ADS-B can also receive point-to-point by other nearby equipped "ADS-B In" equipped aircraft to provide traffic situational awareness and support self-separation. ADS-B is "automatic" in that it requires no pilot or external input to trigger its transmissions. It is "dependent" in that it depends on data from the aircraft's navigation system to provide the transmitted data.
Next Generation (NextGen) Data Communications, an element of the Next Generation Air Transportation System, will significantly reduce controller-to-pilot communications and controller workload, whilst improving safety. NextGen comprises complex integrated and interlinked programs, portfolios, systems, policies, and procedures. NextGen has modernized air traffic infrastructure in communications, navigation, surveillance, automation, and information management.
The Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act was a bill introduced on February 3, 2016, in the 114th Congress (2015-2016) by Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ). Among other things, the bill would have privatized the American air traffic control (ATC) system. The bill would also have reauthorized the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through 2019.
Airport surveillance and broadcast systems are a set of runway-safety tools that display aircraft on and near an airport.
