Guy Norris/SALEM
United Parcel Service (UPS) Airlines aims to have 90 aircraft provisioned for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) by the end of 2000. It plans to equip all its 230 aircraft with operational systems by the end of 2002 - the deadline for installing collision avoidance systems in US heavy cargo aircraft.
The express freight airline is at the forefront of an effort to promote ADS-B for improved safety, enhanced situational awareness and better operational efficiencies. The company's sister unit, UPS Aviation Technologies (UPS-AT), is developing ADS-B systems that were tested by a group of users in the Ohio River Valley free flight initiative in July last year.
UPS-AT is making 24 shipsets of initial ADS-B systems, including the link and display processing unit, cockpit display of traffic information and datalink connection, that will be installed in Boeing 727-100s and McDonnell Douglas DC-8s in time for the next operational trial. This is due to take place at the UPS hub in Louisville, Kentucky, in October, and will demonstrate mixed operations with ADS-B equipped and non-equipped aircraft. It will also merge ADS-B derived data with air traffic control (ATC) radar information, to allow ATC and flightcrews to share situational awareness data.
"We have STCs [supplemental type certificates], or are in the process of obtaining them, and are on schedule to get operational STCs on all the fleet types by the end of 2001," says UPS-AT principal engineer Emmett Griffith. "The 727 and DC-8 fleets will be fully operational by the end of the year," he adds. ADS-B provisioning for the new Airbus A300-600F fleet is being undertaken during assembly, while the operational STC for the A300s will be undertaken by UPS. Other types to be equipped include Boeing 747-100/200s, 757-200s and 767-300s.
UPS says a Federal Aviation Administration study into the effects of ADS-B on terminal operations at a hub such as Louisville has revealed potential capacity increases of 20-30%.
Source: Flight International
