Unique Alliance Could Offer Solution For Safer Air Flight

Probably one of the most exceptional alliances you’d ever expect to hear to hear about was one that finds Raytheon and XM Satellite Radio as the best of buds as they go all out and bid on a FAA contract to re tune air traffic control (ATC) in the United States. The Boston Globe is reporting the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) will award the contract for this makeover shortly, perhaps as early as next week.



How could such work? Consider the two satellites operated by XM. Mix in the boosting of signals from those satellites by some 800 repeaters on the ground. And therein lies the key… those repeaters. ‘Cause those signals are beamed to all of the 48 states as well as 100 miles off each coast and into Canada’s most densely populated regions. But, XM?? Working with the government?? Yep, the company is already doing such with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) wherein XM updates serious disaster or crisis messages from the president. XM already beams live radio to both AirTran Airways and JetBlue and sends traffic information, weather data and other applications via their satellites directly to autos and private and publicly owned small planes.



This contract could be worth from $15 to $22 billion. The goal is to transition ATC away from the decades-old, conventional radar. In its place, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) would be implemented. Airplane and ground based sensors would constantly update GPS satellites as to positioning with precise data for air controllers and pilots. Plus, those who need to know WOULD know what else is flying about in the sky, what’s being readied at the airports for runway takeoff or landing, and accurate weather information would be transmitted to pilots from the XMWX weather satellite broadcast service. Imagine flying a commercial jet liner or working hour number 6 inside a control tower with your eyes glued to a radar image… instead of waiting once every 4.7 seconds for an update from ground-based radar, you now have data updated every second. Plus, with satellite signals, there is no degradation over distance, such as is the case with ground-based radar.



Other inclusions would be new info management systems as well as improved data communications capabilities as the ATC system is finally brought into the current century. Raytheon is certainly committed to the development of the new technology and has already committed a strong core of engineers and others at their Network Centric Systems operation in Massachusetts. The Raytheon/XM alliance is in competition for this contract with ITT and Lockheed Martin. One difference between the competing programs is Raytheon’s proposal would find the system operating on but a single frequency, one already compatible with European and Asian ATC systems being implemented. ITT and Lockheed Martin are working on dual frequency system as specified in the original FAA docs back in 2002—Waltham, Massachusetts—August 24, 2007