UNITED AIRLINES has inaugurated transpacific operations using Boeing 747-400s equipped with Honeywell's FANS-1 satellite-based communication/ navigation system. The first FANS-1 flight was made on 2 September, from Chicago to Tokyo, over Russia.
United Flight 881 was the first over Siberian airspace to communicate with a new FANS controller-workstation at the air-traffic-control centre in Magadan, eastern Russia. Messages were exchanged via two-way datalink, and periodic satellite-based position reports were transmitted from the aircraft.
The Magadan automatic-dependent-surveillance/air-traffic-control system was installed by Service Aero Control, which is teamed with Russia's Buran and ARINC of the USA.
The system allows air-traffic clearances created in Russian to be displayed to the pilots in English.
Source: Flight International
