ADS EUROPE, a consortium of French, Netherlands and UK companies, has received a £1.5 million ($2.4 million) European Union contract to demonstrate satellite-based automatic dependent-surveillance (ADS). Consortium member Racal Avionics is to supply ADS equipment for installation in five British Airways' and Netherlands national carrier KLM's Boeing 747-400s.
Racal will supply five ARINC 600-standard ADS computers to the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The personal-computer-based systems will be integrated via satellite with French and UK air-traffic-control ground-stations before they are installed in the aircraft. Installation is to be completed by December.
ADS software developed by Racal under contract to the British National Space Centre will be used in the demonstrations. The aircraft will be equipped with Honeywell/Racal MCS-6000 multi-channel satellite-communications (satcom) systems. The trials will be based on standards developed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation for both ADS and the future aeronautical-telecommunications system.
An UK CAA ADS trial has been under way since 1992, with a Racal Satfone single channel satcom system, installed in a British Airways 747-400.
Honeywell/Racal's Data-3 satellite-communications software, has been certificated on a Singapore Airlines 747-400, the first airline application of the Inmarsat data-communications standard, the team says.
Source: Flight International
