Slashdot Mirror
Inside FAA's GPS-Based Air Traffic Control
longacre writes "With the growing number of planes in the air setting its archaic radar-based air traffic control on a course toward 'total system collapse,' the FAA has quietly begun testing a new GPS-based system on Alaska Airlines 737s. While radar can take over half a minute to determine a plane's location, GPS technology known as ADS-B broadcasts an aircraft's position to controllers and nearby pilots essentially in real time. If all goes as planned, travelers will see fewer delays as planes will be able to fly closer together and in reduced visibility conditions, and airlines will achieve significant fuel savings by flying more direct routes. The feds plan a gradual rollout over the next two decades that may cost up to $40 billion." There's still some contention about where the funding will come from.
to take 4 days off!
Considering how much the American taxpayers have spent bailing out these losers (while the execs rake in hundreds of millions), they ought to be nationalized already.
failures ?
A single plane that will have a broken device, and wont transmit its position properly will have the option of taking down a lot of stuff.
Whatever the shortcomings of the current radar system, radars tend to work regardless of the planes condition, and regardless of its position.
Heck, IIRC planes only need special equipment to identify themselves, not to tell if they are actually there, and where they are.
Sorry - but i prefer false positives (radar ghosts, or whatever their names) from false negatives (nah, its not a plane, it doesnt have GPS, it must me a bird. [15 minutes later] OH F*CK, EVERONE - RUN!!!....).
If its not going to replace radar systems for good - i see no point in spending 40b, and i dont see how it can replace them - given the requirements for such systems.
Which means that if there is a solar flare or something of the sort, the potential for disaster is enormous. Loads of planes flying around close together using a system that depends on vulnerable satellite links.
This is also assuming that air travel continues to expand. I know that /. is full of posts from global warming deniers, but now that even the politicians are starting to do things rather than talk, this could be a system that takes 20 years to implement and then is redundant.
Pining for the fjords
Doing away with paper based voting, radar positioning systems, and switching to bio-fuels is one heck of a tech addiction, but that's Americans for you. If you guys want high capacity aircraft to fly closer together and straighten flight paths to save fuel there is a way of doing it without the expense or danger. It's a called a frikkin train!
People think that this is SOOO easy to do...
/. member to keep the lights on)
For a time every single plane in the sky will have to have the ability to use both systems at once... and each air traffic control tower will have to be able to control both systems at once... and then you need to train the pilots and air traffic controllers to use the damn thing (you may think it is easy, but I don't feel like "on the job training" is too great of an idea at 50k feet)
Then you need to have a system that can interface with the hundreds of different models of planes...
And it needs to have 99.999% uptime (with a few more 9s in for good measure)
And don't forget, you are going to need to have some agency with some big staff to organize this entire thing... and that office is going to need a secretary, and a few lawyers, etc, etc, etc... (even if you think it is a waste, there needs to be some people SOMEWHERE handling all of this, and they are going to need a copier, some toner, and perhaps a
-nick
Has anyone considered the security repercussions of this idea?
If you trust the planes to tell you where they are, there is a potential that the planes could lie to you. I really hope they take that into account when designing the system.
Coding Blog