GOLDEN CO (IFS) -- SDC OmniMedia Group's, Infotronics USA software developement division had been working on an aircraft auto-drone system for some time. Kenneth Howard Smith, who was head of the small software firm out of Elizabeth, Colorado started working on this system for "taking over" an aircraft as it was flying.
The term "Auto-droning" was coined to explain how the satellite guided system could automatically take control of an aircraft and guide it to another location. The only setback to Infotronics USA's system was that it could not direct an aircraft to takeoff or land.
The concept was so far out there, very few companies or government agencies took Smith's idea seriously, except for the United States Government's Federal Aviation Administration.
Smith's idea was just to much to handle as 9/11 was just to fresh in the minds of the nation and the world. Smith was politely asked to discontinue his work on this project by the FAA back in July 2002.
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For Immediate Release 7 May 2012:
ADS-B Technologies Successfully Tests NextGen Air Traffic Surveillance Using The Globalstar Satellite Network
ADS-B Technologies, LLC has announced the completion of the first public demonstration of its revolutionary space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) air traffic control surveillance system in the deep mountain passes of Alaska. The tests, conducted during the third week in April demonstrated conclusively that highly accurate, reliable and low latency surveillance is now possible at any altitude and over any terrain from virtually anywhere on earth.
"We chose the worst possible conditions for the test, assuming that if we could prove that an aircraft could be reliably tracked only a few hundred feet off the ground in a four thousand foot deep mountain pass, then it could be tracked just about anywhere else on earth," said Skip Nelson, ADS-B Technologies´ president. "The data that we collected from two aircraft - sometimes flying in close formation - clearly demonstrates that we have a viable system. Over-the-horizon, or space-based ADS-B is now a reality."
The new technology is called the ADS-B Link Augmentation System, or "ALAS". It is a true over-the-horizon air traffic surveillance system capable of delivering an uncorrupted 1090ES or UAT payload to an Air Traffic Control (ATC) automation system in real-time from remote, oceanic, or mountainous areas where a conventional line of sight connection to a terrestrial ADS-B ground station is either impossible, or impractical. ALAS is also designed to be unobtrusive and subordinate to conventional line of sight ADS-B and therefore will not interfere with normal payload delivery to other aircraft and to ground stations.
ADS-B Technologies has partnered with Globalstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSAT), a world leader in satellite communications, to transmit the air traffic control data between the aircraft and its strategically placed satellite ground stations around the world. "We definitely prefer Globalstar´s relatively simple and straightforward "bent pipe" architecture for a safety centric business like air traffic surveillance," commented Mike Melum, ADS-B Technologies´ Chief Scientist. "There are fewer potential points of failure and so far, we see no technical barrier to tracking more than 3,000 aircraft in a roughly 1,000 mile diameter footprint from each Globalstar satellite. And, since all of the "brains" of the system remain on the ground rather than on satellites in space, maintenance, expansion and future modifications are going to be much easier and more economical to accomplish."
ALAS is designed to be a simple, economical and easily installed after market enhancement to virtually any 1090 MHz or 978 MHz ADS-B avionics source. User costs, some of which will be borne by the Air Navigation Service Providers and some by the aircraft operators themselves, are forecast to be significantly lower than the current rates associated with similar, yet less capable services like ADS-C.
"With Globalstar´s unique bent-pipe architecture, ground stations can be located close to air traffic control facilities in nations around the world," Nelson said. "This is not only safer and more efficient, but a nation´s ability to land its own ADS-B data within its own borders at a reasonable cost will encourage global harmonization and perhaps earlier worldwide adoption of ADS-B as a universal surveillance standard."
ALAS has been in development since 2009 and a fully certified version of the product is expected to be ready for market by mid 2014. Globalstar has already launched 18 of its 24 next generation low earth orbit (LEO) satellites and should be capable of covering most of the world´s busiest air routes by 2015. Full worldwide coverage, including north polar could be possible by 2017.
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