The Xi'an demonstration will be performed by an international team led by Rockwell's Texas-based Communication Systems division (CSD) and the Chinese Research Institute of Navigation Technology. Other team members include Westinghouse Electronic Systems, SITA and Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA). Rockwell's Collins Commercial Avionics and Autonetics divisions are involved.
The trial is being conducted under the auspices of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC) Northwest Region and is the first of its kind in the country. Chinese air-traffic controllers and research-institute staff will operate the system from the Xi'an air-traffic control (ATC) centre 800km (500 miles) south-west of Beijing.
"Two Cessna Citations will be used for the flying part of the demonstration," says Rockwell-Collins China operations director, Martin Lin. The Citations will be leased from the China Flight Test Centre in Xi'an and fitted with elements of the Collins AVSAT avionics suite. DASA will supply a differential global-positioning-system ground station for the trial, while Rockwell CSD is providing system engineering, integration management and its communication asset-management module. This integrates the ATC controller workstations, provided by Westinghouse, which is also supplying radar and flight automation as well as geographic-mapping software, with the SITA-supported datalinks. The module also integrates an airport surface-traffic surveillance subsystem and the airborne systems.
"In addition, we're talking to Air China to include a new Boeing 737-300 which is about to be delivered from Renton," says Lin. The 737 would support the surveillance element of the trial as it shuttles between Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai on scheduled services. "We would provide precision-approach capability and, when the demonstration is completed, then all the fleets in China could be fitted with the AvSat system," says Collins Air Transport division advanced-market-development director, James Kempema.
If Air China agrees to participate, the aircraft will be fitted with precision-approach capability, traffic-alert and collision-avoidance and an ACARS datalink. "Air China has been designated by the CAAC to perform an evaluation which will be completed by the end of 1996," says Lin. The results of the evaluation will form the basis for CAAC's decision on the development of the CNS/ATM infrastructure.
Source: Flight International
