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Technology Review reports that "Today, five years after Congress validated this vision and the Federal Aviation Administration set out to realize it, free flight is still sitting on the runway... The idea sounded simple and intuitive, and at the same time radical: Free pilots from the rigid, circuitous routes imposed by ground-based air traffic control, and let them choose the quickest and most fuel-efficient paths around wind and weather.... For some, this retrenchment (away from free flight) marks a welcome return to reality. For others, it is a temporary obstacle to clearance for takeoff. But for some of free flight's radical devotees, it's an unconscionable retreat from an urgent and eminently feasible mission, the latest in a string of costly botches and compromises by the FAA. And since there are not alternative proposals on the table for a substantial overhauls of the air traffic control system, some experts think we're on course for a nightmare in the sky..."

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