ABSTRACT
The purpose o f this paper is to describe how flight progress strips are currently used in United States (US) en route air traffic control (ATC) and to discuss the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) objective of eliminating them. The paper will begin by briefly describing the US ATC system, in particular the en route environment, then will describe how flight strips are used. Issues surrounding the replacement of flight strips will be discussed, along with the role of various methods o f inquiry in answering questions about appropriate strip replacements. We provide several reasons for taking the position that flight progress strips can be eliminated, but argue that for a variety of reasons a transitional system will be valuable for moving the current, strip-dependent workforce away from paper.
