A Biden policy that would replace dozens of airport towers with “green replacements” – including mass timber – could be on the chopping block as Elon Musk sets his sights on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
It comes after Wood Central reported, back in July 2023, that then-President Biden set aside US $500m to rebuild 31 “sustainable towers” – from Key West in Florida to Fort Worth International Airport in Texas and Bellingham in Washington, which were due to break ground late last year.
“These air traffic control towers will mean that smaller airports can handle more flights, more sustainably and more affordably,” according to then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, revealing that the fully electric towers would use recycled steel, “renewable mass timber where possible”, and also have eco-friendly features like geothermal heating.
Wood Central understands that Musk – who will sit down with President Trump to film his first televised interview since taking over as DOGE chief today – could scrap the upgrades altogether, instead favouring replacing control towers with remote sensors – essentially highly accurate infrared cameras on tall scaffolding – already used in Canada and across Europe.
Currently prohibited by the FAA, experts claim that remote sensors eliminate human error and provide safer, less expensive air traffic monitoring, particularly in inclement weather.
On the Biden-era policy, “nobody official, nobody on the congressional committee questioned it,” according to Robert W Poole, the director of transportation policy at the Read Foundation, who, with fellow aviation expert Stephen D Van Beek, drafted a policy brief on remote control centers for Trump in 2017. “It’s just rolling ahead. All of these projects would have been ideal sites for remote towers. It’s more effective, safer and cheaper, so why would you turn that down?”
It comes after President Trump’s newly appointed Transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, revealed yesterday that Musk will visit the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia to help him “envision how we can make a new, better modern and safer system.”
In the Washington Times, Mr Poole said experienced air traffic controllers favoured the remote towers over conventional ones during simulations: “A remote tower can improve safety margins and provide operational benefits compared to a conventional tower,” Poole and Van Beek’s brief to Trump said. And the cost “is significantly lower” than a controlled-tower.
“The question is whether there is a way to open up this concept inside the FAA,” said Mr Van Beek, who said the new control towers could not only be used at dozens and dozens of small and regional airports – potentially monitored from a single building – but also at major airports, to augment manned-control centers and provide another layer of safety on crowded runways. “There seems to be, for whatever reason, a reluctance inside the FAA bureaucracy to embrace these tools.”
- To learn more about the Biden-era policy for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
