Satellite based Air traffic control

The FAA recently awarded ITT a contract to build Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) which includes a network of ground stations needed to relay air traffic information to controllers and pilots.

"Airplanes will receive signals from satellites that will give them their precise location in the sky and on airport tarmacs. Planes will then relay that information to ground stations, which will give it to controllers. Pilots will be able to view the locations of other planes on screens in their cockpits."

"ITT representatives said they will deploy more than 700 ground stations nationwide -- many in cellphone towers maintained by AT&T, a contract partner."

But airlines have not been waiting. This NY Times articles describes how Alaska, Delta and UPS are already using satellite based navigation.

"It is a revolution in technology, but also in politics. Previously, the FAA usually bought new systems on the ground and told airlines to equip themselves to use them; now the airlines are taking the initiative to outfit their planes, with safety regulation from the F.A.A.

Airlines are even developing their own approach patterns for airports, which has almost always been a government job.

U.P.S. Airlines, working with Aviation Communications and Surveillance Systems, based in Phoenix, is developing a landing pattern based on separating planes by time, not distance, so they land at the briefest safe interval."

"Through a combination of G.P.S., traditional navigation aids and instruments on board that give the plane’s position by measuring each turn, Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737s know their position within 600 feet, the airline equivalent of the head of a pin.

In contrast, the older system required pilots to draw a mental map of the plane’s position, using compass cards and a display of how far the plane was from some land-based radio beacon, and a paper chart showing the mountains in the area."

"Today, Alaska Airlines’ planes land there as long as clouds are 337 feet above the surface and in visibility down to one mile. And they can take off in either direction. Of the approximately 3,600 flights the airline operated in and out of Juneau last year, 754 could not have been tried in years past."

I would be interested to know these changes will negate the need for the 29.92 adjustment pilots make today. Readers?

Comments

[Edward]

Question: What technology do todays AutoLand systems use? Is GPS a factor? Any new systems being developed that will allow land and taxi to the gate?

Someday we will see the pilotless flight with commercial passengers. It's inevitable. So what is worse... Pilot Error or Computer Error.