Testimony Prompts Questions about ADS-B

Questions about the future of ADS-B have cropped up following Acting FAA Administrator Lynne Osmus’s February 11 testimony on FAA appropriations to the House aviation subcommittee. In her testimony, Osmus stated, “In 2007, FAA issued a proposed regulation that, if finalized, would require ADS-B out equipment on all aircraft operating in certain classes of airspace within the NAS by 2020.” Before Osmus’ statement, however, operators had assumed that since the FAA had described ADS-B as the “backbone” of NextGen, the question of its finalization was moot.