The Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that pilots will start using new NextGen technology and procedures that will enable aircraft to fly more efficient, environmentally-friendly flights into Portland International Airport (PDX) beginning next year. The NextGen (Next Generation Air Transportation System) program uses cutting-edge technology, including new Area Navigation (RNAV) approach… Continue reading Portland, Oregon Flights to be Cleaner and Greener
Tag: GPS
Radars… the end is near. Hopefully.
If you are a bird flying over Europe, finding yourself slowly being roasted by radars is not something unexpected. In an effort to achieve radar coverage that is at least double and in view of the fragmented nature of the air traffic management system, this effort has resulted in triple+ coverage in some places. This… Continue reading Radars… the end is near. Hopefully.
Garmin Leads the Way to ADS-B Future
Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd., the global leader in satellite navigation, has announced a comprehensive suite of certified and portable ADS-B solutions, providing options for any aircraft owner to satisfy the U.S. NextGen mandate for ADS-B Out and also gain immediate access to the benefits of ADS-B In, including high-integrity traffic and subscription-free… Continue reading Garmin Leads the Way to ADS-B Future
Intellectual Property Rights – the sky is the limit?
That Apple and Samsung are at each other’s throats over the Galaxy range of smartphones and tabs is no news. Of course if we look at the details, the situation is nothing short of ridiculous. Basically, Apple had claimed originally that not only did the interface on the Galaxy infringe its patents, but the form… Continue reading Intellectual Property Rights – the sky is the limit?
Alternate Position, Navigation and Timing (APNT) – What is this?
In any conversation about satellite navigation and the use of enablers like GPS, talk inevitably shifts to the risks and the ease with which GPS for instance can be jammed. It is easy to sketch doomsday scenarios with a full-scale GPS outage once NextGen and SESAR are operational, making the industry essentially dependent on signals… Continue reading Alternate Position, Navigation and Timing (APNT) – What is this?
Big brother in the sky
Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) is only now starting to make inroads as a surveillance means more accurate and cost-effective than traditional radar. With the ground infrastructure slowly being built, someone has already come up with a new idea: why not put the ADS-B receivers on satellites and start a surveillance service that covers… Continue reading Big brother in the sky
Jamming GPS – No bad guys needed, the FCC will do it for you!
Whenever a discussion is started about whether or not we should entrust aircraft navigation to GPS, there will be at least one person raising the issue of jamming. This is the specter of a single bad guy with a little black box purchased on eBay for a few bucks creating havoc in air navigation by… Continue reading Jamming GPS – No bad guys needed, the FCC will do it for you!
Troubled Galaxy
That space around planet Earth is teeming with man-mad objects is common knowledge and not so long ago we got a good demonstration of what happens when stray metal hits another satellite. For a time it was unclear where a sizeable piece of junk would fall on the surface of the Earth. The satellites serve… Continue reading Troubled Galaxy
Performance Based Navigation (PBN) – Why the "N" should be an "O"
The abbreviations game In aviation we seem to be creating abbreviations at a rate that raises the specter of our grandchildren not having any usable combinations left any more. This remark from a well respected colleague of mine who used to work for UPS airlines does in fact indicate a few problems that go beyond… Continue reading Performance Based Navigation (PBN) – Why the "N" should be an "O"
EGNOS open service available
Quote from an airspace user position paper dated 1 July 2003: “Finally, the airspace users would like to recall that they have resisted the development of the European Geostationary Overlay System (EGNOS), which has been mainly developed for political reasons and for which all attempts to build a credible aviation business case have failed. As a… Continue reading EGNOS open service available