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Opportunities in aviation and GPS  Sanjeev Goel Centre For Technology Training 218 Agcr Enclave Vikas Marg Extension Delhi 110092, India ctt@techtrainings.com cnetpro@vsnl.com
Introduction The air transport industry has developed a new operational concept for the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system, which involves dramatic changes to the airplanes, infrastructure, and ground systems. The current ATM system (based on ground navigational aids, radar, and voice communications) will be unable to cope with expected air traffic growth. The industry has responded by developing an operational concept known as the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) which relies on space based navigation and communication to provide the improvements needed in Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) to efficiently cope with future traffic levels and to provide a level of efficiency to current operations. The FANS concept broke new technical ground as it required industry to consider ATM as a system with ground components, space components, and airborne components. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) FANS committee also committed to certain technical solutions for improvements to CNS such as Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN), GPS navigation, and satellite communications. The Air Traffic Management ( ATM ) system must not only be considered as a system; it must also be considered as a business The evolving Free Flight or Flight2000 is an innovative concept designed to enhance the safety and efficiency of the Airspaces. The concept moves the airspace concept from a centralized command-and-control system between pilots and air traffic controllers to a distributed system that allows pilots, whenever practical, to choose their own route and file a flight plan that follows the most efficient and economical route. The providers of air traffic control services, the users of these services, and financing organizations all need to be advised of the financial implications, and convinced of the economic viability, of the new CNS/ATM systems. In addition to the assessment of over-all viability, it is important to determine the separate impacts on administrations responsible for providing the services, and on airlines and other aircraft operators who use the services “FANS” CNS-ATM The Revolutionary Evolution Imagine an airspace environment in which airlines and other airspace users have the freedom to select preferred flight paths in real time, with virtually no restrictions. While this degree of freedom is not available as yet, it is a goal air traffic controllers the world over attempt to achieve every day through their efforts to accommodate flights with the most direct and efficient routes possible. It is a goal second only to the prevention of collisions - that is inherent in the air traffic control (ATC) system. Constraints caused by permanent airspace reservations for national purposes and technical limitations in the ATC system have so far rendered this goal elusive. In 1983 ICAO chartered the Special Committee on the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) to study the current air traffic infrastructure and recommend changes to support the anticipated growth in air traffic over the next 25 years. Constraints with the Present Aviation Infrastructure The present air navigation system can not support the predicted air traffic growth in the next two or three decades in terms of capacity, efficiency and levels of safety. The FANS committee identified the following limitations in the present system:
Communications Transition to digital air/ground communications from today’s analog radios Navigation Transition to a Global Positioning System (GPS)-based navigation and landing and subsequent decommissioning of ground-based navaids and precision approach aids. Surveillance Transition from ground-based surveillance to dependent cooperative surveillance of GPS-derived position Air Traffic Management Transition from existing en route and traffic management to common Air Traffic Management (ATM) platforms, consistent user interfaces, and common of support software. The other principal transitions are:
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