S&T Trends

Air Safety Week, March 31, 2008

Major Contract for ADS-B Weather Systems

All Weather, a manufacturer of automated weather information systems and meteorological sensors, has been selected by ITT to supply 62 Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) as part of ITT's ADS-B contract with the FAA. AWI's contract with ITT is valued at $45.5 million. AWI will provide turnkey installation of 37 FAA Certified AWOS systems to be located on oil drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and an additional 25 AWOS systems to be located at various sites in Alaska. AWI's effort includes site surveys, engineering, production, and installation over the next three years, and maintenance of the systems for 15 years.

Euro Flights Surge to All-time High

EUROCONTROL recently released an analysis of traffic and delays in Europe in 2007, and 2008 predictions, which shows that in 2007, the number of flights in Europe surged to 10 million, an all-time high and an increase of 5.3 percent on 2006. Average daily traffic in Europe in 2007 was 27,676 flights a day compared to 26,286 in 2006. Traffic growth was strongest in Eastern Europe, with several states seeing growth near 20 percent. Growth in Finland and Sweden and in Azores and Canary Islands was lower than the European average. Growth was driven mainly by low cost carriers, which saw an increase of 25 percent on the year as a whole. But in 2007, on average 11 percent of flights were delayed, up from just under 10 percent of flights which were delayed in 2006. The number of flights in 2008 is predicted to grow by 4.2 percent, but air traffic flow management delays for summer 2008 will exceed three minutes per flight, up from 2.6 minutes in summer 2007. Traffic growth is expected to be strongest in countries along the Adriatic Coast and in Poland and the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). For the first time 20 percent of all flights are expected to be from low-cost carriers.

China Signs on for NextGen

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB) of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, allowing the U.S. and the People's Republic of China to begin collaboration in earnest toward the harmonization of future air traffic management systems. The signing of the pact formalized the already strong air traffic cooperative relationship, and officially established a NextGen Air Traffic Management Steering Group. The Group, co-chaired by JPDO Chief Architect Jay Merkle and ATMB Deputy Director General Lu XiaoPing, provides a forum for the FAA Air Traffic Organization, ATMB, JPDO, and other key partners to achieve mutual understanding of each other's complete air traffic system requirements, needs and plans. As one of the first efforts under this agreement, a FAA/JPDO team will travel to Chengdu, China, during the week of April 14 to conduct a workshop with key ATMB representatives.

USAF funds research into oil repellent surfaces

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is funding investigations into super oil repellent surfaces because of their potential utility in cleaning up jet fuel spills and protecting aircraft or rocket parts from fuel absorption. Drs. Gareth H. McKinley and Robert E. Cohen, professors of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are exploring man-made and natural surfaces that keep gasoline and oil from soaking in and spreading out over a surface. The challenge is the low value of the surface tension of many oils, which makes them spread over surfaces very easily. Surface tension is a measure of the attraction between molecules of the same composition. The researchers' goal is to design new solid surfaces with very low interfacial energies that can repel oily liquids. The scientists' work may lead to protective coatings for airplane parts, which are vulnerable to fuel leaks. The researchers may also create fuel-line gaskets with the new technology because gaskets typically swell substantially when they absorb gasoline.

Satellite Precision Landing System

Honeywell recently demonstrated its satellite-based precision landing system to senior representatives from airlines and ANSPS (air navigation service providers) at Germany's Bremen Airport.A B-737-800 operated by the German airline TUIfly used a prototype Honeywell GBAS (ground-based augmentation system) for the demonstration flight that was organized by Airservices Australia and Honeywell, with the assistance of Germany's ANSP (air navigation service provider) DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung and Boeing.DFS operates the Bremen system, and will be Honeywell's SLS-4000 GBAS launch customer following its FAA certification, which is expected later this year. Airservices also operates a GBAS prototype at Sydney, and is working with Honeywell to develop the system. Honeywell says the GPS-signal augmentation provided by GBAS can improve the accuracy of the onboard navigation systems enough to allow precision landings even in very poor visibility.