Further tests of a NASA-sponsored wake-turbulence sensing system show the laser-based acoustic sensor can detect and track vortices from a wide range of aircraft on approach.
In trials at Denver airport in Colorado, the Socrates ground-based sensor detected and tracked over 715 wake vortices created by aircraft ranging from regional jets to large airliners. The tests, led by NASA's Langley Research Center and the US Department of Transportation's Volpe Center, were part of a project to assess acoustic wake-vortex sensors. Flight Safety Technologies is prime contractor, with Lockheed Martin as subcontractor.
The Denver trial uses an array of low-power laser beams to detect air disturbances, and was the latest in a series that began with proof of principle tests at New York Kennedy airport in 1997-8 and included more extensive trials involving NASA's Boeing 757 at Langley AFB, Virginia, in December 2000.
Source: Flight International
