For anyone who hasn’t noticed, the skies are getting pretty crowded. Last year was one the worst year’s in U.S. history in terms of flight delays, and things aren’t expected to improve anytime soon. This is due to a number of reasons – more flights, technical problems, poor airline procedures, weather - but it also may have a lot to do with outdated means of air traffic control. In an effort to update the system, new technology is in the works to help pilots navigate the skies more safely and efficiently.
Currently being tested by the Federal Aviation Administration, the A.D.S.-B (automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast) could help relieve some of the congestion in the sky. Basically, the device works like a GPS system for planes – pinpointing a plane’s location and the locations of other planes in the sky. The device also gives pilots the altitudes of surrounding planes, so they can tell how many feet above or below them oncoming planes are. Additionally, pilots can zoom in and out with the device, check weather maps and search user manuals. While this technology doesn’t really sound groundbreaking, it is when you compare it to the technology currently in place in the aviation industry.
If you’ve ever seen a movie featuring stressed-out air traffic controllers (e.g. Pushing Tin, Modern Problems, United 93), you have an idea of how the current system works. These controllers stare at screens showing the radar positions of planes and relay the information to pilots, making sure planes stay miles away from each other (3 miles near airports, 5 miles elsewhere). This 50-year-old system relies on information relayed from 450 nationwide radar dishes that rotate and update every 12 seconds. Though the system has made the skies safe, it’s expensive to maintain and flawed (radar signals can be interrupted by weather, and can’t be used over mountains or large bodies of water). It also may not use air space as efficiently as it could. When controllers get busy, they have to put pilots on hold – which often results in planes circling runways waiting to land.
What the A.D.S.-B does is put radar information directly into the hands of pilots, which, quite frankly, makes sense (UPS carriers are already using the A.D.S.-B with extremely positive results). And it’s not just the A.D.S.-B that could transform the aviation industry. The new device is just one component of the Next Generation Air Transportation System being designed by the Federal Aviation Administration to help streamline air traffic control. With air traffic predicted to grow two to three busier in the next 15 to 20 years, the changes seem necessary. But the process of installing the systems will cost airlines and the federal government between $15 and $22 billion. And many airlines may be reluctant to spend the money required to update their planes with the new technology (which can run around $300,000 for commercial liners).
Despite the expense, the benefits of modernizing the air traffic system could prove worthwhile for airlines - cutting down on fuel consumption and creating more efficient takeoff and landing times. But many airlines and air traffic controllers argue the problem doesn’t lie in the skies but on the ground. They claim airports need more runway space so that planes can takeoff and land more frequently. The problem is that people in residential areas don’t want loud runways impeding on their communities, so expansions are difficult to push forward. But, whether the solution ultimately lies on the runway or in the air, everyone seems to agree that a solution is needed. The only question is whether one will be put in place before frustrated passengers lose faith in air travel altogether.
The process of incorporating A.D.S.-B technology has just begun, with the whole effort expected to take until 2020 or 2025.
