A "users summit" has been called for mid-March to determine the best solution to integrity issues uncovered during testing of the US Federal Aviation Administration's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS).
The summit, organised by the US Air Transport Association (ATA) and Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), will involve the FAA, prime contractor Raytheon and Congressional staff, as funding is a major concern.
While WAAS is beating accuracy expectations, the FAA terminated a 60-day stability test in January because of excessive false alarms in the integrity monitor. The FAA has reaffirmed need for an integrity of 99.99999%, but says "meeting that integrity level will impact schedule and availability".
Users have been offered two solutions: a 14-month delay in deployment, to December 2001, to allow redesign of the architecture; or an eight-month delay to fix and retest the current system. ATA wants "something this year", while AOPA is prepared to wait to 2001 get a better standard of service.
Source: Flight International
