This is the second in a series of reports from my meetings last month with Department of Transportation officials in Washington, D.C. (see the first report, on DOT Secretary Mary Peters and “Air Woes”, right here). Your comments are welcome.

There was a lot of buzz surrounding FAA’s Acting Administrator Robert “Bobby” Sturgell at the conference, due to the fact that he once flew fighter jets as a naval aviator and then later used that experience to become a flight instructor at the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School (that’s Top Gun school to most of us).

I think people were half-expecting to see Tom Cruise or Val Kilmer sitting across the table from them.

Instead, what I found was a trim-looking, 48-year old man who clearly had a lot on his mind. Sturgell seemed a bit distracted and tired, and he looked as though he was taking the responsibility of the world on his shoulders (think American Airlines & MD-80 groundings). Most of this responsibility comes in the form of the Next Generation Air Transportation System Integrated National Plan, or NextGen for short. A major part of our discussion revolved around how NextGen will bring air traffic control out of the Dark Ages. However, saying that and executing it are two different things, and I think that is what was weighing Sturgell down.

Keep reading for a look at NextGen…