FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford on ATC Modernization, MOSAIC Reform, and Drone Policy

Bryan Bedford assumed the role of FAA Administrator in July 2025, bringing with him decades of commercial aviation experience as a senior executive at Republic Airways and Frontier Airlines. He holds an instrument rating, owns his own aircraft, and is one of the rare FAA leaders in recent memory to combine real cockpit experience in general aviation (GA) with airline executive credentials.

Some in aviation circles may remember his appearance on the reality show Undercover Boss, where he was filmed cleaning lavatories aboard a Frontier Airbus—a detail that neatly encapsulates his hands-on, front-line management philosophy.

That practical background now intersects with the White House's push for rapid delivery. Throughout his interview with FLYING Magazine, Bedford repeatedly referenced President Trump's agenda and timelines—covering air traffic control (ATC) modernization, drone policy, supersonic flight, and broader aviation innovation. He said the FAA and the Department of Transportation are moving "at Trump speed" to translate executive orders into regulatory action.

Nine months into the role, Bedford is positioning the FAA as an agency expected to produce tangible results on a compressed schedule, rather than one content to chase distant, decade-long goals. The following is an edited summary of an interview conducted at FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., in April 2025.

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Setting the Pace

FLYING Magazine (FM): As you approach your first year in the role, what do you see as the biggest change at the FAA?

Bryan Bedford (BB): A lot has changed. I think the most important shift is our focus. We launched Flight Plan 2026 to align the entire agency—from senior leadership down to front-line technicians, controllers, and facility managers—around the same set of priorities.

In the past, the FAA put out plans that ran five to ten years, long enough that nobody ever had to show results. Now we set goals and actually complete them. That sense of "we're doing things, and doing them quickly" is generating real momentum.

We've also restructured the organization to make it flatter, more accountable, and easier to manage. Most people in this position tend to operate at 30,000 feet, but I genuinely want to go beneath the surface and ask: are we actually efficient? What problems do front-line employees face every day, and are we giving them solutions?

FM: You came from the private sector, where airline operations move fast. What was the biggest adjustment to working in government?

BB: I'm not a politician and never claimed to be. Politics is a contact sport I had never played, so some decisions carry political weight that took time for me to adjust to. I had to internalize that I'm not a corporate CEO—I'm one gear in a very large machine.

Understanding what the principal wants to deliver, and aligning our resources with executive orders—frankly, President Trump has been very clear about his priorities, and that gives the FAA a lot of actionable direction: eVTOL, supersonic, space. This administration is actively working to unlock a wave of innovation, and wherever the FAA or DOT is involved, we are moving at Trump speed to turn executive orders into regulations and then into innovations that consumers can actually experience.

FM: "Moving at Trump speed"—that's a striking phrase. Has that sense of urgency changed how the FAA operates?

BB: Yes, because it brings clarity. When the President is explicit about priorities, we can concentrate resources to execute on them rather than drift in prolonged discussions that produce no action. We are trying to get things done, and we're doing it quickly.

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ATC Modernization

FM: Let's talk about the new ATC system. What does this actually mean for pilots—especially GA pilots?

BB: In the most tangible terms, you can already see step-change improvements in the aviation medical process. We drove the backlog of medical certificates outstanding more than 18 months from over 4,900 cases down to fewer than 142. That demonstrates urgency and a genuine desire to fix stakeholder pain points—and GA is a community we care deeply about.

On modernization: NextGen accomplished a great deal and introduced excellent technology, but adoption cycles were measured in decades, not years. President Trump gave Secretary [of Transportation] and me a very clear directive—he wants a brand-new ATC system built before his term ends. That gives us a very concrete deadline: 2028.

We've built a waterfall deployment plan targeting completion in Q4 2028, and we are currently on schedule or ahead of it. The primary challenge is on the supply-chain side—procuring 612 radars at favorable pricing and ensuring they can be delivered and made operational within three years. Voice switches, analog-to-digital conversions—all the same story.

FM: Is that just the first step?

BB: That's right. This phase is heavily focused on hardware. True modernization—the destination President Trump actually has in mind—requires a second phase of funding to introduce advanced automation, AI, machine learning, and everything else that 21st-century traffic management demands. Those capabilities need to run on cloud-native architecture with essentially unlimited compute capacity to support advanced algorithms. The FAA's current data architecture cannot do that. So we are actively planning the second step: a fundamental transformation in how data is managed and utilized.

FM: You mentioned AI and machine learning. What specific applications are you exploring?

BB: I won't go deep into the technical details, but we currently have three labs racing to develop a transformative capability—pre-departure, four-dimensional trajectory strategic deconfliction. Pre-fly deconfliction.

Compare that to what we do today: you file a flight plan, we accept it, you try to fly it, and then we manage separation. Now imagine if, at the start of the day, we already knew every four-dimensional flight trajectory had been deconflicted, and we simply said, "You're cleared to depart." That is achievable. The technology exists today—we don't need to wait a decade. We're working to figure it out now and start talking about implementation next month.

FM: Staffing—particularly the controller shortage—remains a core issue. Where is the bottleneck?

BB: Identifying bottlenecks and constraints is actually one of my strengths. Early in my tenure I had the senior leadership team trained in the Theory of Constraints, so we have a shared language for asking: what are we actually trying to achieve? To improve a system you have to understand where it's broken and attack it from first principles, not just apply patches.

In Flight Plan 2026, people are the cornerstone of National Airspace System (NAS) safety. This is a human-judgment-intensive safety system. We need better tools, more well-trained people, and better tools to help them perform.

Right now, the controller onboarding pipeline is too slow, training is too fragmented, and the process of getting controllers to facilities is too cumbersome. Compounding that: on-the-job instruction (OJI) varies across all 318 facilities in the U.S. Introducing standardized procedures and a standardized curriculum is a significant improvement opportunity.

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MOSAIC and General Aviation

FM: If you were speaking directly to the GA community, what would you tell them to expect before 2030?

BB: I want the GA community to have more precision and less uncertainty across the entire ecosystem. In my view, less uncertainty means less risk. Over the next three to four years, our goal is to remove risk from the system.

MOSAIC is a good example—we can move from highly prescriptive regulations to highly performance-based regulations, enabling industry to innovate while still meeting safety standards. At the same time, we are working with the GA community to identify risks: where are the high-risk points, and how do we communicate so that industry knows what needs attention?

Visual separation procedures, mountainous terrain—these are areas where we see risk and need to work closely with the community. Alaska as well—we see the risk, and we have mitigations such as AWOS and remote digital towers. How do we use 4D camera systems to expand capability to more locations? I think there are many opportunities to deploy technology that already exists today, improving service and reducing risk.

FM: Tell us about MOSAIC. What's your vision?

BB: MOSAIC is fundamentally about unlocking innovation in light sport and experimental aircraft. When we impose highly prescriptive requirements, people try to comply, but compliance doesn't always produce the safest outcome. For example, manufacturers lighten an aircraft to meet a weight limit—but we actually don't want them to do that. We want structural integrity and stability, yet prescriptive rules push them toward tradeoffs we don't like.

So the point is to focus on what actually matters for safety—stall speed, upset recovery performance, dynamic stability—and let innovators work around those core safety parameters rather than getting lost in detailed constraints that stifle their ability to innovate.

FM: Is MOSAIC a major transformation for GA, or just another incremental opportunity?

BB: For the FAA it is a major transformation, because it moves us away from our normal mode of operation, and that creates some institutional discomfort. Different innovators will meet performance requirements in different ways, which is a departure from the traditional "check the box, then certify" approach.

The same shift is coming for drones. We are moving toward more performance-based, industry-consensus standards. The FAA is not known for listening to industry, but President Trump has explicitly directed us to unlock U.S. drone dominance—and the way to do that is to listen to what the drone community needs in terms of an environment that enables innovation.

FM: What about landing fees and GA access? This has become a flashpoint at airports with heavy training traffic. Will the FAA step in?

BB: First, airports are permitted to charge service fees—that is allowed. But how fees are structured and assessed is critical. Here's what I think drives the frustration: we created ADS-B as a safety technology, and it genuinely makes flying safer and improves pilot situational awareness. But if someone makes an unsafe decision—choosing not to use ADS-B to avoid a fee—that is the moment the FAA needs to raise a flag.

ADS-B is not meant to function that way. It is a critical safety tool, and we need everyone using it. If a fee structure leads people to turn it off, that has become a safety issue, not just a fee issue.

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This article is based on an interview originally published by FLYING Magazine, conducted at FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., in April 2025. Content has been edited for length and clarity.

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