Graham Warwick / Washington DC
Boeing Air Traffic Management and the US Federal Aviation Administration have demonstrated communications and surveillance via commercial satellite in Gulf of Mexico airspace that is outside terrestrial radio and radar range.
Three demonstration flights using Connexion by Boeing's 737-400 testbed were conducted under the FAA/Boeing-funded global communications, navigation and surveillance system (GNCSS) programme to test next-generation air-traffic management concepts.
The flights demonstrated two-way digital voice, controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC) and automatic dependent surveillance (ADS) via Telstar 6 Ku-band geostationary satellite and Iridium L-band low-Earth orbit satellite. "We demonstrated two different voice communications, CPDLC-like digital messaging and ADS-like data via satellite," says Bob Struth, GNCSS demonstrations manager for Boeing ATM. Transition from VHF radio and radar to satellite communications and ADS was "transparent" to Houston, Texas air traffic control centre controllers, he says.
The gap in radio and radar coverage over the Gulf of Mexico limits airspace capacity to 45-50 aircraft an hour because of the need for far greater separation between flights. Using the Connexion aircraft as well as simulated ADS targets, "we demonstrated the same separation as with VHF and radar", says Struth.
Data was shared between multiple locations via a secure network, providing a common operating picture to Houston centre; Boeing ATM's McClean, Virginia laboratory; Connexion's Irvine, California operations centre; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida; and Lincoln Laboratory in Massachusetts. The demonstration included the common information network concept that is central to Boeing's vision of a future ATM system. Connexion's broadband link was also used to share aircraft flight-management system with the ground, Struth says.
The final demonstration under the current GNCSS contract will involve two flights in the busy Potomac terminal area around Washington DC. Struth says these will use three aircraft, 13 different radar feeds and simulated radar and ADS targets injected via satellite from Boeing in Seattle and McClean and Lincoln Laboratory.
Source: Flight International
