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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0066.PDF
made possible by greater automation. Sec tor boundaries will also be redrawn, to match traffic flow better. These changes will allow recruitment of controllers to be kept in check while demand continues to be met. Natural wastage will then allow a progressive reduction in total ATC staff (see table on page 84). Today there are about 5,000 controllers, compared with roughly 10,000 before the clash between Patco and the US Government. Integrated flow-management will allow areas of bad weather around airports to be circumvented more efficiently, through changes to appproach patterns. This technique is already practised to a limited extent. Optimum runway use Another aid to better traffic-flow is a runway-configuration computer. This computes which runways should be dedi cated to take-offs and landings, and where mixed use is desirable. At Chicago O'Hare, where there are six main runways and one for light aviation, this decision can be a complex one. A computer has been tested at O'Hare, and it seems iikely that major US airports will eventually get this aid. During the next 20 years, voice contact between controllers and pilots above 18,000ft will be phased out. Instead there will be a telex link via Mode S secondary surveillance radar. Automated flight-services and weather forecasting are another lynch pin of the Plan. Here the greatest benefit will be to general aviation. Existing provision of weather-forecasts is labour-intensive, and often subject to delay. Pilots typically call their flight-service station, and wait to be read information from a telex/facsimile receiver. Weather data is updated about once an hour, and is fed into the system manually. Under the new scheme, pilots would be able to receive synthesised-speech weather reports from VORs, or phone flight-service centres. Weather informa tion would be revised every 5min, and most inputs would be automatic. Pilots How the $9,000m is spent ; •'''•. '•/.'•.•••*•..'•:'•;;;•..:''-•-•„,:•. \.,%„;:>.:" -..; I i»dv ;y-o;a ?'.!•/, X< u,Jh-,P =-.•• • ;rv:C ht--.'" ?'-,;;•,..»•:-• -\Xi-; ?-.';,-; .-„;';i;-c „V.,:-;. .-. I (Flight. February 20, 19S2. page 403). ! tbt- W'gt"rt im'iv«(u4i afe>iirs2 of teefsayV j sw»« table «efo%? . IJteiag ;Fli;S33: ex- puJicMiuie to abeyi te'ie? the 'SMMa-:. jl til [norms.! budg,«fc, tei f.?ak spending nf I roughly $1,000 '.isIllnS';' ipectns^-in^: $ million New ATC computers 2,424 En-route and TMA consolidation 257 Automated flight-services 307 Aviation weather 568 New SSRs (Mode S) 484 MLS replacement of ILS 1,623 New generation Vortacs 11 Better communications among facilities, TMA primary radars, modernisation of existing computers, tower relocation, airport- movement radar, and other items All prices are in real-year dollars 3,224 9,000 may request en-route weather from flight- service staff, which obtain this detail via computer. Information on turbulence and wind-shear, derived from doppler weather-radar, will also be introduced. Further improvements are envisaged in the late 1980s. These will allow anyone with a push-button phone to dial the com- Inside the control tower at McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas. Mode S secondary surveil lance radar will provide a telex-type link between controllers and pilots (Stephen Piercey) puter direct. Pilots simply input their route, whether it will be VFR or IFR, and the computer replies in synthesised speech. Even flightplans may be filed in this way. It is expected that about 70 per cent of all briefings will be computer- controlled. There are now a little over 300 flight- service stations in the USA. These will be cut back to 61 automated centres, equipped with computers. Equipment for 41 of these centres was ordered last autumn, and deliveries are due to begin late this year. Air-ground data-links, provided by Mode S secondary surveillance radar, promise to be an exciting aspect of the FAA's airspace blueprint. In simple terms, SSR signals carry coded information to the aircraft transponder, which replies with similarly encrypted data. The result is a telex-type link. Possible uses include relay of weather conditions, traffic advisories and ATC clearances. Claimed benefits include reduced controller and pi lot workloads. Mode S demands replacement of exist ing SSRs and airborne transponders. An FAA specification on the SSRs is due out this month. It will call for almost 200 new radars, to be bought in two phases. Total cost of the SSRs will be roughly $200 mil lion, including installation. A supplier is due to be chosen late next year, and ser vice entry should begin two years later. TMAs will get around 90 per cent of the SSRs—the rest will go to en-route centres. Raytheon, Sperry, Texas Instruments, and Westinghouse have said that they will compete for the new SSRs. The introduction of Mode S paves the way for the FAA's traffic alert and col lision avoidance system (Teas), encour aged under the plan, but not demanded by it (Flight, November 20, 1982, page 1491). MLS introduction Precision approach aids enter a new era with the plan's provision of microwave landing systems (MLS). The first production-standard MLS was installed in Alaska late last year. MLS will replace ILS throughout the USA by 1995 (Flight, November 6,1982, page 1324). This means buying and installing 1,250 MLSs, at a cost of around $1,100 million. Strictly speaking, new-generation Vor tacs are not part of the Plan. But their introduction will be a big factor in reduc ing maintenance costs. The new Vortacs are transistorised, and feature remote- monitoring. About 36 Vortacs were due on site by the end of last year. The FAA has largely paid for the installation of 1,000 Vortacs, VORs, and DMEs. They should all be in service by the end of 1984. Any plan involving many elements de pends a lot on cohesiveness. Unless all the innovations are made in a co-ordinated way, a lot of the benefit can be lost. Tran- j sition can also be painful. The FAA has J done its best to keep its Plan together. It | has organised the Plan so that all major I financial committments are made by J autumn 1984—when President Reagan's ! term of office ends. XI FLIGHT International, 8 January 1983
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