New FAA Administrator Makes GPS Tracking a High Priority
For about a decade, automobiles have been equipped with satellite-based vehicle tracking solutions, so that drivers and trip managers can navigate, track and record the vehicle’s comings and goings along our nation’s road systems.
It might be surprising to some that our commercial airlines have not embraced GPS tracking in the same way.
Airplanes still rely on a radar-based navigation and tracking system, which has served us well, but has been around since World War II. The Federal Aviation Administration wants to implement a switch to an industry-wide tracking system using the latest GPS tracking (satellite based) technology. The plan is called the next-generation air traffic control system (NextGen). But it hasn’t seen any significant progress in years.
Now there’s a new man in charge of the FAA and he’s making GPS tracking of commercial aircraft one of his top priorities. In May, the Senate confirmed Randy Babbitt as the new administrator of the FAA. He is appointed to a five-year term.
NextGen is not moving fast enough, Babbitt said at his Senate confirmation hearing. He called for constructive input immediately, from all areas of the aviation industry.
NextGen is a planned transformation from the decades-old outdated radar-based aviation tracking system to one that relies on the more accurate readings of satellites. The technology is very similar to that of vehicle tracking. GPS tracking of aircraft is predicted to increase safety, reduce environmental impact, shorten flight times, cause fewer delays, and simply allow better planning.
With the current land-based tracking system, pilots lose communication with air traffic controllers during transatlantic flights, every day. Pilots have to zigzag from land base to land base while crossing the ocean to report their coordinates and check in with the ground via radio antennas.
GPS tracking, because of its incomparable accuracy and reliability, would allow air personnel to run more straightforward and customized routes. Pilots can report their positions anywhere on the planet, in real time.
The FAA’s Babbitt said he wants to see an industry-wide satellite-based tracking system sooner than initially planned. The current timetable is for short and mid-range changes between 1012 and 1018, with full incorporation of GPS tracking by 2025.
The problem is money. GPS tracking and navigation would require that expensive, GPS tracking equipment be installed in every commercial cockpit. Some engineers familiar with GPS tracking technology put that cost at $20 billion.
Babbitt suggests there needs to be a new vehicle for funding this change in air traffic control. People today are flying less and fuel is becoming more expensive.
In spite of the lack of a funding solution, Babbitt is preparing for the GPS tracking transformation in smaller ways.
One way is with trans-Atlantic test flights, aided by GPS tracking from satellites.
Another is training. Babbitt is placing GPS tracking specialists in all Regional and Airport District Offices (ADO). He wants to be sure that the staffs, which are entrusted with aircraft safety and policies, are familiar with GPS tracking well before the official transformation. There’s no time like the present to learn GPS Tracking 101.
The advantages of GPS tracking on planes are clear:
- More precise navigation, especially in bad weather, will allow aircraft to fly more direct patterns and fly closer together laterally.
- Aircraft will be able to descend with shorter routes and a minimum of power, thereby reducing fuel consumption, noise and emissions.
- Better communication between pilots, controllers and workers on the airport grounds. With the benefit of GPS tracking maps and displays, rather than a radio and grid map system, all personnel will have better awareness of a plane’s position from moment to moment, with minimal – if any – loss of contact.
Experts in the aviation industry estimate that, once GPS tracking equipment is fully integrated into the cockpit, the airline industry will save about $6 billion a year. At that rate, can we afford not to do it?
Source: Aero-News Network
Tags: Aero-News Network, FAA, GPS Tracking, Vehicle Tracking
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