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Satellite Airliner Tracking Over Oceans Goes Global (bbc.com)
dryriver shares a report from the BBC: Tracking airplanes anywhere in the world just got a lot easier. The U.S. firm Aireon says its new satellite surveillance network is now fully live and being trialled over the North Atlantic. The system employs a constellation of 66 (Iridium) spacecraft, which monitor the situational messages pumped out by aircraft transponders. These report a plane's position, altitude, direction and speed every eight seconds. The two big navigation management companies that marshal plane movements across the North Atlantic -- UK Nats and Nav Canada -- intend to use Aireon to transform their operations. The more detailed information they now have about the behavior of airplanes means more efficient routing can be introduced. This ought to reduce costs for airlines. Passengers should also experience fewer delays. Aireon has receivers riding piggyback on all 66 spacecraft of the Iridium sat-phone service provider. These sensors make it possible now to track planes even out over the ocean, beyond the visibility of radar -- and ocean waters cover 70% of the globe. The rapid-fire nature of the messaging also means aircraft visibility is virtually continuous. Existing data links only report ocean-crossing aircraft positions every 14 minutes. '
Only took 5 years to implement this aspect of the satellite tracking of flights - MH370 had everyone asking why this wasn't already a thing. I wonder how much longer for all airlines to opt-in and make whatever changes they need to their aircraft to participate.
Question is whether this can help with GPS spoofing attacks on planes maybe....
It seems ships have had a decent tracking system in place for a while now. See https://www.marinetraffic.com/ .. many update every 2 minutes.
With planes I could track almost real-time a relative's long-haul flight. So something already exists for aircraft too. The change here must therefore be that the ping is wired-in mandatory and not subject to a pilot flipping the switch to off.
>US and European regulators have mandated all aircraft carry this equipment as of next year. Surely with the exception of all military planes, a bunch of CIA-owned planes and a bunch of private planes owned by the dark state puppet masters.
Nav Canada was privatized by the Canadian government about 25 years ago and it's been hitting homeruns ever since.
The US federal government could learn from this great example.
"Satellite Airliner Tracking Over Oceans Goes Global"
Excellent. VERY much needed. Not knowing where an aircraft was when it crashed was weird.
Before: Airplanes can vanish without a trace. Why is effective tracking technology being ignored? (Nov. 2011)
Plane Crash Info
Why, after many, many years, flight recorders are still being destroyed? Both recorders from Boeing 737 recovered but 'partly destroyed', airline official says, as search for bodies continues. (Mar 11, 2019)
Letting an American company -- and the paranoid corrupt government and military it has to answer to -- control data for global navigational purposes? What could possibly go wrong?
When we get this for automated cars, self-driving may actually work! And they don't even need to cover the oceans!
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Because it was an inside job by Bush and the Koch Brothers to drive up the price of oil. They are all coal and oil tycoons, after all.
Without being able to flog the fake news of "collusion" or salivate over disappearing airliners, what is CNN going to run now?
Their ratings are already tanking:
Tucker Carlson Beats CNN's Entire Prime Time Line Up Combined. CNN Isn't Taking It Well.
CNN's entire prime time line up garnered 2,474,000 total viewers compared to Carlson's 3,475,000 total viewers.
Oooof.
The satellites rely on planes transponders. The MH370 had its transponder disabled, and that network wouldn't have helped.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography
And time, and location, and multiple radios, and of course why not land based radio.
Problem solved.
I notice that people who comment on Slashdot often assume that they know more than someone else.
Instead of asking how I would accomplish the loss of flight recorder data, the AC who replied in the parent comment assumes that he (or she) knows everything.
Here are some ideas about avoiding the loss of flight recorder data:
1) There should be perhaps 4 flight recorders, located in the airplane in different positions.
2) There should be 2 more flight recorders that are ejected with parachutes when the pilots know the airplane will crash.
3) Flight recorders should be coated with foam rubber that cushions crashes and causes floating. Yes, that would make the recorders much larger, but not as big as the space required for one passenger.
4) Anyone who reads this: Please supply your own ideas for preserving flight recorder data. Please DON'T imply that you know everything, and that the problem is not solvable.
AC, that is so true, it makes me laugh.
The fleet of new Iridium satellites that enabled this were lofted on SpaceX's Falcons - including recovered and re-flown boosters.
I'm not a Musk fanboy, but this is a good thing and he and his company are doing well.
Good too for the Iridium team to have the guts to use the falcon, and then doubling-down and having the guts to use re-flown boosters - an act that not only provides humanity with the new benefits of these satellites, but also helped Musk prove to others that flying a valuable payload on a re-flown rocket is an acceptable thing.