DAVID LEARMOUNT / BRUSSELS
With VDL-2 not even implemented yet, new generation system already being considered
Eurocontrol and the US Federal Aviation Administration say they are already having to consider what controller/pilot datalink communications (CPDLC) mode will follow the embryo VHFdatalink mode 2 (VDL-2), even though they have not yet implemented the first system. What they both fear is that, having co-ordinated over the implementation of VDL-2, they might diverge at the next stage, according to Eurocontrol Link 2000 programme manager Alex Wandels.
Neither organisation has set a target date for the advance to a "NEXCOM" mode because the studies are at an early stage, and they hope to learn lessons from the operational experience of VDL-2, says Wandels. Operational trials with VDL-2 are being carried out by the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center in the USA and the Maastricht centre in Europe with the co-operation of a group of volunteer carriers led by Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa.
By the time the VDL-2 "first step" air traffic control datalink system has been implemented on both sides of the Atlantic, Eurocontrol and the FAA admit that they will have to know what system they will upgrade to next because VDL-2 can only handle the type of information - albeit much faster - that can be passed by air traffic control voice communications and the airborne communications and reporting systems (ACARS). This is not enough to make the necessary future gains in air traffic management capacity.Implementation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation standard VDL-2 datalink will start as soon as Eurocontrol and the FAA can get critical mass airline participation and arrange for the core area air traffic service providers to equip and train in Europe. Eurocontrol expects this to happen in about 2010.
Meanwhile, the FAA is already planning for a "seamless transfer" to its "NEXCOM" VDL-3 and Eurocontrol is studying VDL-4 with Honeywell.
VDL-4 is capable of taking air traffic management into a new era, in which pilots could be enabled to arrange their own separation because they could be given the quality of information that controllers have about the traffic in their vicinity. Sweden wants to adopt it without going through the mode 2 and 3 stages, but Eurocontrol argues that while it may be good enough already for the quieter skies of Scandinavia, the technology is not yet capable of coping with the high-density traffic in Europe's core states.
Source: Flight International
