Modified system enabled crew of Oslo-bound Boeing 737 to send details of flightpath to airline’s operations centre
Pilots of a Scandinavian Airlines Boeing 737-600 have carried out the first downlink of flight management system trajectory data from a revenue flight, under a programme aimed at improving air traffic management efficiency.
Flight SK495 from Stockholm Arlanda to Oslo downlinked its flight plan and a trajectory message to SAS’s operational control system Hermes. The trajectory information contained the aircraft’s intended flightpath – from climb-out through to cruise, descent and touchdown – including waypoints, altitudes, and crossing times.
Downlink of the data is a crucial step in the NUP2+ programme, initiated last year as a follow-on from the north European air traffic management programme NEAN.
Two 737s in the fleet of SAS’s Swedish division had their flight management systems modified by Smiths Aerospace and Boeing to enable the trajectory data to be accessed. Twenty 737s in the fleet will shortly be similarly equipped.
The next step in the programme will be to adapt aircraft systems to handle the introduction of continuous-descent approaches into Arlanda from 24 November.
Lars Lindberg, chief executive of Swedish aviation technology specialist Avtech, says the purpose of the 19 October experiment was to test the communications link.
During the test, the aircraft sent the trajectory message over an ACARS link, but the NUP2+ team intends to implement a VDL Mode 4 datalink – fitting four of the 20 737s with multi-mode receivers – to provide the communications channel next year. This will enable the NUP2+ programme to move into exploring tactical as well as strategic air traffic management – by enabling, for example, the uplink of weather information.
“We’re trying to provide predictability and controllability,” says Lindberg. “Weather is one of the factors which can most significantly affect trajectories.”
Providing airports, air navigation services and airlines with more predictable information on aircraft trajectories enables air traffic controllers to sequence and separate aircraft more effectively – reducing runway occupancy times – and allows airports to be better prepared with ground support services during turnaround.
The NUP2+ team claims that the resulting air traffic management efficiencies can lower fuel burn by up to 100kg (220lb) per flight.
DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW/LONDON
Source: Flight International
