The FAA is currently working with ICAO participating countries to establish interoperability between next generation air traffic control tools. Transferring flight data across these new systems is of course software and hardware dependent, however another important issue is how the air traffic control information is communicated between the users each air traffic system.
             No "across the board" solutions seem to be readily available (Maurino, n.d.). The process of crew resource management, or CRM, has evolved into an accepted method of training cockpit communications skills on the flight decks of the worlds airlines. However, CRM has it's limitations. As aviation strives to standardize ATC functionality on a global basis, cultural differences begin to take on new meaning and importance. If we look at the Hofsteade survey of 1980 which attempts to measure different dimensions of national culture, we can see that depending on how a person values his or her place in their own culture has a direct result on how that person could be expected to act in a given situation. These perceptions of importance differences, along with how users communicate across systems, need to be considered during ATC tool development to minimize their effect. ICAO seems to be taking positive steps toward this goal by developing human factors Standard and Recommended!
             Practices (SARPs). Standardizing air traffic control functionality across international systems is on-going. Training development and standardizing course conduct will help reduce the effect of cultural differences. To minimize training expense, identifying human-technology flaws early on during the development of the next generation air traffic control tools is crucial (Maurino, 1998). The FAA seems to agree. The "Spiral-Development" (FFP1 n.d.) philosophy for the deployment of Free Flight Phase 1 tools has been adopted by t
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