The FAA Is Spending Nearly a Billion Dollars to Make AI the “Brain” of Air Traffic Control Towers, Starting This Monday
TL;DR
The FAA is spending more than $875 million on SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories), an AI system built by Air Space Intelligence under a 12-year contract. It analyzes airline schedules, weather and runway capacity and proposes alternative routings when airspace gets congested, rather than directing traffic itself. After a 90-day test period, deployment starts Monday in the busy Washington, DC airspace.
Nauti's Take
The approach looks promising because SMART hands controllers routing options while humans keep the final call, which limits the risk of a model error reaching the cockpit. The open question is how well it copes with severe weather and rare edge cases that barely show up in training data.
The potential payoff for airlines is fewer delays, and European regulators should watch the Washington results closely.
Sources