Lon More,
Because the New Model is a new idea with no funding there are inevitably very few people with a full understanding of its structure and potential. I was on the Farnborough stand the whole time (other than for essential breaks) but I could only talk to one group of people at a time. Laugh out loud if you like but I AM one of the most knowledgeable people in FDP systems. How was it that nobody else on the eFDP project had ever worked on an FDP implementation? And radar systems? I was the technical integrator for Signaal’s Rotterdam Harbour system which (when I joined the project) was so late that questions were being asked in the Dutch Parliament. I was personally tasked with getting it into service and my first delivery was on time six months later. I’ve worked for the big names and there are very good (but not excusable or justifiable) reasons why so many projects are late.
My comparisons are meant to illustrate different points. It is easy to suggest that something can’t be done but Clarke’s First Law states:
“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible he is very probably wrong.”
Some of my examples show how true this is. Frank Whittle had to suffer people telling him the jet engine would never work even after the E28/39 had flown for the first time! Regarding the railways (which I use as an extended example on my website) I have actually taken a group of signalmen around LATCC and visited them at Slough Signal Box. Of course aircraft can’t stop in mid-air but if the path allocation and signalling are correct then trains don’t stop either. If they do then that is exactly analogous to aircraft holding. If you draw further parallels between CFMU and pathing, sectors and block sections, co-ordination and telegraph bell codes, separation standards and clearing distances then the operational problems of the two domains are identical.
The area I try to keep as far away from as possible is politics. Salaries, terms and conditions are not for me to comment on. However, as I have written before, those who understand the New Model will be able to control their destiny. If someone else gets there first then the future may be out of your hands. Denial is not the best strategy.
Thank you for your post. I am grateful to all who take the time and trouble to read or comment. I am still talking to my bank manager about Maastricht.
“Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.”
John Steinbeck, East of Eden