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Safety & Technology Trends

Air Safety Week, April 14, 2008

Delivering Squid

Era Corp. has reached a major manufacturing milestone with the delivery of its 1,500th Squid, a vehicle tracking unit. The landmark Squid was delivered to NATS of the UK for use at London's Gatwick Airport. In all parts of the world, runway incursions remain one of the most significant safety risks for aviation, with vehicle incursion onto active runways being a significant cause of reported incidents. Advanced air traffic control organizations and airports are augmenting their surface movement systems with active vehicle position and identification information provided by Squid by Era, the world's most commonly chosen and widely deployed airport vehicle tracking device. While the technology was initially deployed primarily for safety reasons, operational benefits can also be derived by comprehensive real-time awareness of the location of all airport vehicles. Russell Hulstrom, Era's vice president and general manager of air traffic management solutions says "no other vehicle tracking unit on the market today provides the accuracy, durability and functionality of Squid." The device can be seen at many of the world's busiest airports, including Amsterdam Schiphol and Singapore's Changi International.

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RFID Can Promote Aviation Safety

Lufthansa Technik has developed a UHF RFID (ultra high frequency radio frequency identification) transponder designed to be permanently installed on an aircraft to automatically identify objects without the need for physical contact. Technik believes RFID can "radically" simplify routine logistical processes such as maintaining and repairing aircraft components or in everyday flight operations. With the help of the RFID transponder, it is possible to locate and identify any given object and verify its modification status at all times - without having to access a central database - via the simple transmission of radio waves. RFID has been in use for some time in other business sectors such as the clothing The use of this new technology radically simplifies all routine logistical processes, be it in the maintenance and repair of components or in everyday flight operations. Such systems always consist of at least two components: the transponder, or tag, which is located in or on the object that needs to be communicated with, and a reading device to identify it. The passive UHF tag delivers its information by backscattering the emitted carrier wave, and draws the energy required to do this from the incoming radio signal. This means that the tag does not need its own power source and can thus function entirely passively.

Sensis Wins NASA NextGen Research Contract

Sensis says its Seagull Technology Center will undertake a project for NASA that will leverage the firm's extensive airspace modeling and simulation development capabilities to directly address current aviation issues. The project, "Linking Airspace Modeling and Simulation Tools of Variable Fidelity and System Scope," integrates previously created, specialized airspace and air traffic control (ATC) models and simulations into a system-wide simulation. The system will be employed to analyze potential future technology, infrastructure and procedural changes to increase safety, capacity and efficiency.

In recent years, increasingly complex and detailed models and simulations have been developed to analyze various aspects of the ATC system. These models are valuable resources that can be leveraged in a system-wide environment. This research will help to accurately model how detailed changes affect the National Airspace System (NAS) when developing system-wide solutions to capacity and safety concerns.

TCAS II Certified for Helicopters

Rockwell Collins says aviation history was made when a Super Puma helicopter equipped with a Rockwell Collins' Traffic Alert Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II)

and operated by Bristow Eastern Hemisphere departed from Aberdeen Airport for various Shell installations in the East Shetland Basin. Helicopters now have the same level of enhanced safety that TCAS II already provides fixed wing aircraft. Rockwell Collins worked alongside the Aberdeen-based Bristow with the assistance of Shell Aircraft to install, test and certify TCAS II. The group was able to use Rockwell Collins' existing TCAS-4000 product line for fixed wing aircraft, without making any modifications to the system. This effort resulted in Bristow Eastern Hemisphere receiving the first ever EASA Supplemental Type Certification of TCAS II for rotary aircraft.

Government Industry

Safety & Technology Trends

Air Safety Week, April 14, 2008

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