Sharing and collaboration has never been easier since the Internet entered our lives and exploded as a matter of course through the Internet. mobile technologies. We share our tastes through the Internet and we feed the system by rating hotels on Tripadvisor, books on Amazon, films on IMDB, traffic conditions on Waze, and so on. But what about the aeronautical world, is there something similar?
Well, there is something similar but much bigger and more ambitious. In particular, there are two technologies that can change a lot of things in the short term. They are Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). One focused on the world of airports and the other on the world of aircraft.
A-CDM is a system for share information on the operation of the airport between airlines, operators and even other airports. It is a project developed under the umbrella of Eurocontrol and ACI Europe (http://www.euro-cdm.org/) and has been fully implemented at Munich and Brussels airports. In particular, the person in charge of the data and management servers at Brussels airport has been involved in this project and has a blog where he gives a detailed account of the process. His name is Kris de Bolle (http://about.me/krisdebolle) and has already published two very interesting articles:
1. Airport Collaborative Decision Making in Europe: http://dcdesigntech.com/new-airport-insider/airport-collaborative-decision-making-in-europe/
2. A-CDM Concept Elements: Setting Milestones: http://dcdesigntech.com/new-airport-insider/a-cdm-concept-elements-setting-milestones/
ADS-Bis a cooperative surveillance system for tracking aircraft. Each aircraft determines its position via satellite using GNSS (GPS, GLONASS or Galileo) and transmits it openly by radio. This technology is part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) in the United States and the CASCADE program in Europe. By January 2020, it should be implemented in any aircraft flying in US-controlled territory. At first glance, this technology seems complex, but it is not, and its power is incredible, as with this information it would be possible to operate in a small airport without the need for approach radar or many complex and expensive technologies. And all thanks to the fact that aircraft share information about their position, origin and destination. In fact this technology is so simple that we can replicate it in an amateur way with a computer, some software and an adapted TV-TDT card (http://www.rtl-sdr.com/adsb-aircraft-radar-with-rtl-sdr/). The result is equivalent to what we can see in http://www.flightradar24.com/.
Once again, it shows that share may be much more important for the future than is often realised.
Update:
This post was written before the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. This flight has made ADS-B publicly known and one of the questions most people have been asking is:
Why is it so important that the ADS-B can be switched off manually by the pilot?
As always, the answers are varied, they are related to the errors they may have in reporting the position of the aircraft and the like. For further information, here are a couple of essential links:
– Why can aircraft transponders be switched off manually? on the Microsiervos blog
– Out of Control in the New York Times
