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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Sky Watch
System to replace pilots' radar

By MARK HARPER
Daytona Beach News-Journal Education Writer

DAYTONA BEACH — The new national air traffic control system, a kind-of Global Positioning System for the skies, is widely expected to make air travel safer and more efficient.

News-Journal photos/JI-EUN LEE Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Flight Department Chairman Frank Ayers explains air traffic shown on the screen in Daytona Beach. The red targets show ERAU's planes equipped with air traffic surveillance technology, and the black targets show aircraft equipped with radar. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University junior Jon Ice performs preflight checks on a Cessna 172 equipped with air traffic surveillance technology in Daytona Beach.

At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where the fleet of aircraft has been equipped with the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system (ADS-B), students like Milan Krekan have come to view it as something of a security blanket.

"With ADS-B, you feel a lot safer," said Krekan, a sophomore. "It gives you a lot more information."

Frank Ayers, chairman of the flight department, said a lot of students find the device easier to pick up than the circular dials that may be going the way of biplanes and leather helmets.

With the system, they can look at a computer monitor and view images of all aircraft in their vicinity. ADS-B constantly updates planes' positions and altitudes — information pilots previously got only by looking out their windows or listening to air traffic controllers.

What’s more, the technology will ultimately replace the radar that pilots and air traffic controllers now use to determine where airplanes are in space and the course they are following.

Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration awarded a $1.8 billion contract to ITT Corp. to develop the system and equip the entire nation by 2013.

“This signals a new era of air traffic control,” FAA Deputy Administrator Bobby Sturgell said in a news release. “ADS-B will attack the delay problem head-on by dramatically increasing air traffic efficiency.”

Ayers said more investment in airport infrastructure, such as building more runways, ultimately would do more good for the delay problem, but he’s a fan of the system primarily for safety reasons.

For controllers, the system is a major upgrade from radar because of radar’s limitations. Ground-based radar beams make a slow, circular sweep of the skies and detect aircraft at a certain altitude only once every 35 seconds. Satellite-based ADS-B provides constant updates and aircraft can be tracked at any altitude.

“We should have gone this direction five years ago,” said Sid McGuirk, associate professor of air traffic management and a 35-year FAA veteran. “ADS-B is the wave of the future. We can no longer rely on radar — this is World War II technology. We’re talking about something that’s 60 years old.”

The FAA estimates its part of the system could cost as much as $22 billion, while the cost to owners of aircraft could run another $20 billion.

Some in the industry have grumbled about the change’s cost. It took Embry-Riddle, with a fleet of more than 60, about $8,000 to $10,000 to equip each plane with the system. Ayres said the safety and educational value of having students train on it was worth the price tag.

Plus, he said, it provides pilots with more opportunities to fly direct routes — rather than following landmarks, such as interstates. In the long run, the point-to-point flights save on fuel expenses.

Did You Know?

The first air-traffic control system was developed in Europe in 1919. Radar wasn’t introduced until just after World War II.

• After the invention of the airplane in 1903, there were no ground-based controllers until the International Commission for Air Navigation developed rules for air traffic. The U. S. did not participate in the convention, but later devised its own rules after the Air Commerce Act passed in 1926. The rules included, “there is no risk of collision with landing aircraft until preceding aircraft are clear of the field.”
• The British developed radar in 1935 and began using it for defense in 1941. It used radio wave to detect distant objects.
• Also in 1941, the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration began constructing the first air-traffic control towers. By 1944, there were 115 towers.

SOURCES: The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, the Royal Air Defence Radar Museum in England

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