An American Airlines Boeing 767-300ER has conducted the first demonstration of the aeronautical telecommunication network (ATN) in the latest stage of European and US programmes designed to lead to the operational implementation of datalink communications.
The 767-300ER flew from Dallas, Texas, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, exchanging controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC) with Eurocontrol's Experimental Centre in Bretigny, France, and the European air navigation organisation's Maastricht Upper-area Control Centre in the Netherlands using ARINC's VHF digital link (VDL) air-to-ground network.
The flight late last month comes in the latest phase of Europe's Preliminary Eurocontrol Test of Air-Ground Data Link (PETAL II) project, which is testing datalink communications between aircraft crew and air traffic controllers in an operational environment.
American Airlines is the first carrier to take part in the programme's ATN phase, the previous stages of which tested the North European ADS-B Network (NEAN) VHF datalink-4 and the satellite communication-based future air navigation system (FANS-1/A) infrastructures.
Use of ATN CPDLC on American Airlines 767 flights as part of the PETAL programme will start next month. The aircraft will also take part in the US Federal Aviation Administration's ATN/CPDLC over VDL trials in Miami, Florida, next year.
ARINC has provided the VDL air/ground communications network using two VDL groundstations in Dallas and Tulsa, while the aircraft is equipped with Rockwell Collins ATN avionics.
The test flight followed laboratory and ground tests of the Rockwell avionics communicating with Eurocontrol. This included flight tests with DERA's BAC One-Eleven test aircraft and the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory's Cessna Citation (Flight International, 7-13 November 2000).
Source: Flight International
