FAA Top Gun Moves To Private Sector

Former FAA Director of Oceanic and Offshore Services David Ford, who led a series of successful initiatives to make airspace more efficient, has joined Rannoch Corporation. Ford recently retired from the FAA after a 31-year career. He led the team that developed the Advanced Technologies and Oceanic Procedures (ATOP) system that allowed a reduction in lateral separation of transoceanic flights from 300 miles to 100 miles. Ford also helped develop a daily tracking system for transoceanic flights and helped develop airport surface movement monitoring systems using ADS-B and multilateration. At Rannoch, Ford will be the vice president of strategic operations, where he’ll manage development and implementation of ADS-B and multilateration gear “to improve air traffic safety, capacity and efficiency for the next generation of air traffic management,” according to Rannoch. Ford said that to accommodate increasing air traffic, the world’s airspace management agencies need new gear. “The world’s leading aviation authorities have recognized that the growth in air travel cannot be effectively and safely accommodated with today’s radar infrastructure and are looking to our core technologies to help manage the next-generation airspace,” said Ford.