Recently in Avionics Category

I've been getting questions from many corners asking how it's possible that Air France 447, or any commercial aircraft for that matter, could cross an ocean without air traffic controllers knowing the exact location of the flight at all times?

Right now the only ubiquitous way to have a real time track of an aircraft is with a traditional radar system over or nearby land. Oceans present a unique challenge to aircraft crossing without radar coverage, even though it is done without incident hundreds, if not thousands, of times per day.

Since the early 1990s, pilots have used a system called FANS (Future Air Navigation System) that uses CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communications) and the older ACARS (Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System) in lieu of voice communication with ATC. The CPDLC runs on ground based and satellite communications via Inmarsat.

Pilots interface with CPDLC via Flight Management Systems (747-400), Datalink Control & Display Unit (DCDU) panels (A330/A340) or Multi-Function Displays (A380, 777 & 787) to send/receive position reports, emergencies, route/speed/altitude changes, enroute weather reports and oceanic crossing clearances.

While cutting down the workload for both pilots and air traffic controllers, CPDLC was never intended to provide live flight tracking over the ocean. Instead, aircraft report their position at demarcated waypoints along the oceanic crossing and tell controllers when they expect to cross the next waypoint.

I ask: If it can be done on our cell phones, why not for our aircraft?

Air France 447 made a radio call crossing intersection INTOL, before the ACARS fault message was received from the aircraft about 54 nm from intersection TASIL, though the exact location of the crash is unknown as crews have begun to locate debris.

This leads directly into the biggest leap in air traffic control technology since the system was first created in the 1940s. The Next Generation Air Transport System, or Next Gen as it's known, will see the implementation of satellite based aircraft tracking with the GPS, called Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B). ADS-B technology transmits the location of the aircraft to within a few hundred feet of accuracy to both ground stations and other aircraft, rather than the 1-2 miles of accuracy with traditional radar.

The FAA plans to roll out Next Gen and ADS-B over almost a decade or longer, with airlines and industry groups pushing regulatory agencies to both move up deadlines for aircraft equipage and provide additional financial incentives to outfit aircraft. The ground-based portion of the system is expected to be deployed by 2013, but aircraft outfitting timelines remain an open question.

Right now, the FAA is providing financial assistance to United and US Airways to equip 747-400s and A330s with ADS-B equipment for trial testing, respectively. US Airways will have ADS-B on 20 of 25 of its new A330-200s for Atlantic crossings into Philadelphia. United will install the system on 12 747-400s for testing on Pacific flights between San Fransisco and Australia.

Australia announced in March that it plans to require all aircraft traveling through its airspace above FL290 by December 12, 2013 to comply with ADS-B requirements. The new air traffic system will cover the continent, as well as significant parts of its oceanic airspace. Though the Australians scaled back the plan as it took into account the pace of ATC developments in both Europe and the United States.

As the entire world looks for clues to the cause of Flight 447, technologies that make long haul air travel into areas without radar coverage safer may find themselves at the forefront of the lessons learned. Even if it is found that the cause of the crash is unrelated, a global situational awareness of aircraft position can help speed search and rescue missions, as well as aid in future accident investigations.

Advanced air navigation technologies have come out of air disasters before. In 1974, the FAA mandated Part 121 operators to install ground proximity warning systems in the wake of several controlled flight into terrain accidents in the early 1970s and later expanded that requirement to even smaller aircraft over the last thirty years.

Could this tragedy be the spur for global ADS-B coverage?

Last week, my colleague Lori Ranson and I were invited by Honeywell for an in-flight demonstration of the Primus Epic avionics platform with Synthetic Vision and RNP .1 capabilities that have been installed on the company's Gulfstream G550 (N933H).

The 90 minute flight, which was similar to a G450 flight from a year ago, took us down to Roanoke after we departed Dulles. We flew two approaches to runways 24 and 33 in Roanoke then back to Dulles for a nightime approach on runway 19C.

For a bit of additional background on the Honeywell/Gulfstream system, take a look back the four part series I published a year ago. The Enhanced Vision System II was on full display for this flight and was particularly useful as we spotted a wildfire off the end of the runway in Roanoke.

• Part I - Ground School
  
• Part II - To The Sky
• Part III - Go-Arounds and Wildfires
• Part IV - The Return Home

Southwest Airlines awarded a $40M to General Electric to retrofit its entire fleet of 737-300s with twin 15.4-inch SDS-6000 glass displays to enable RNP (Required Navigation Performance) operations across the overwhelming majority of its 737 fleet. 

Avidyne invited me to come and see its new products in action at its NBAA booth last week. Tom Harper, Director of Marketing for Avidyne, showed off the the MLX770, which brings text messaging to general aviation, and the not-yet-officially-revealed IFD8000 15-inch twin glass displays with enhanced and synthetic vision systems. These are two very visual products, so I've created two videos for your viewing pleasure to see all the features on these new products.

IFD8000:


MLX770:

Bombardier unveiled its Learjet 85 cabin mock-up here at NBAA and I was invited to take a look inside the new Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics suite.

UPDATE: See our walk through video of the Learjet 85 cabin mock-up.

The business end of the first composite Bombardier aircraft features three 15.1" (38.4 cm) Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Displays (AMLCD), Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS), Dual automatic Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS), Integrated Flight Information System (IFIS) with electronic charts, One Class II Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), Synthetic Vision System for Situational Awareness (SVS), Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS), Dual Flight Management System (FMS) and a weather radar system.

Wow, that's a lot of alphabet soup! Take a look:

Have you ever seen "that guy" on the road? Have you even been "that guy?" You know, the one who feels compelled to text message while driving. What about while flying?

Well, starting in the fourth quarter of this year, Avidyne will begin delivering its MLX770 two-way Datalink Transceiver. For the first time, general aviation pilots will be able to send and receive SMS text messages directly through the multifunction display to mobile phones on the ground.

Avidyne says the response from customers has been "overwhelming." The practicality - and novelty - of such a system is immediately apparent, adding a useful communication tool with people on the ground if you're arrival is delayed.

Don't expect long conversations though, Avidyne has limited the length of outgoing messages to 32 characters and they are entered by control knob, not keyboard.

"You wouldn't be sitting up there chatting like you're on a cell phone or computer," says Tom Harper, director of marketing at Avidyne.

This feature, unlike a mobile plan, does not come with unlimited text messaging, rather each text message is expected to cost between $1 and $2 to send and receive because of the bandwidth usage on the Iridium satellites that enable the datalink. For every ten hours of flying, Avidyne expects the service to run between $70-120.

As for distracting the pilot, one would hope that we'll see aviate, navigate, communicate (then text message) hold true. A passenger sitting in the right seat can just as easily use the system as well.

The text messaging features are not disabled during climb or descent. Avidyne emphasizes that, "the pilot will use discretion and good judgment to acknowledge the message at the appropriate time. These messages are considered low priority (cyan) so if a higher priority Traffic Alert (yellow) or Terrain Alert (red) message comes up, it will appear on top of any incoming email message."