The US Federal Aviation Administration plans further laser sensor wake vortex detection tests under the third phase of its Project Socrates, which aims to detect potentially hazardous wake vortices.
Lockheed Martin and Flight Safety Technologies hold a $1.1 million contract to examine the ground-based acoustic sensor's ability to detect wake turbulence in an airport environment.
Socrates (Sensor for Optically Characterising Remote Turbulence Emanating Sound) uses a low-power laser array beneath the final approach path to detect, localise, characterise and track the acoustic signature of wake vortices created by aircraft flying overhead. The ability to detect and track vortices could allow reduced arrival and departure spacing when weather conditions permit.
A Phase I proof-of-principle test was conducted at New York Kennedy in May 1998, when acoustic data on more than 300 arrivals was collected using two laser sensors. Phase II testing followed in December 2000 at Langley AFB, Virginia, when the system tracked the wake vortices generated in 19 overflights at various altitudes using NASA's Boeing 757.
Phase III tests will involve a variety of government-supplied reference sensors to characterise the sound generated by wake vortices and will examine Socrates' performance.
The initial focus of Project Socrates is on improving capacity and safety at airports with closely spaced parallel runways. In instrument meteorological conditions, runways spaced less than 2,500ft (760m) apart are operated as a single runway because of wake turbulence. Socrates will define appropriate wake turbulence constraints and allow implementation of procedures that enable parallel approaches to closely-spaced runways to continue as weather deteriorates.
Source: Flight International
