Aireon and the
Federal Aviation Administration have announced a
successful flight test of space-based Automatic
Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology,
collecting ADS-B data to be used as part of a larger
validation effort exploring the new system’s
capability from low-earth orbit.
The flight took place
on Thursday, March 30, 2017, utilizing the FAA’s
specially equipped “flying laboratory” Bombardier
jet with three AireonSM payloads available to
receive data. A total of 2,462 ADS-B messages were
received and decoded providing comparable data to
that of terrestrial ADS-B stations.
The flight test
was highly choreographed and precisely located and
timed within the Washington and New York Flight
Information Regions (FIRs) to help provide
validation of the capabilities of the Aireon system.
Made possible by
the FAA’s NextGen program, the coordinated flight
test involved trials of 125 watt top and
bottom-mounted antennas on the FAA’s “flying
laboratory” jet known as N47. The aircraft is
specially retrofitted with highly calibrated
antennas, flight-data test equipment and recorders.
Based out of the FAA William J. Hughes Technical
Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the N47
aircraft helped begin the evaluation and
verification of the performance of the Aireon
system, particularly in high interference and high
density environments. Aireon’s space-based ADS-B
global surveillance and aircraft tracking technology
is largely a combination of FAA NextGen
advancements, and the Iridium® NEXT satellite
constellation, which hosts the Aireon ADS-B
receivers.
“A flight test
coordinated with the FAA was the ultimate validation
accomplishment for the Aireon system to date and is
a textbook example of how a public-private
partnership can thrive. It is nearly impossible to
have a higher fidelity test without the experts at
the FAA,” says
Vinny Capezzuto,
chief technology officer and vice president of
engineering at Aireon. “The NextGen team and the N47
flight crew are the industry all-stars when it comes
to testing and validating technologies. Our ADS-B
payloads are really an extension of the NextGen
team’s work to-date, ensuring air traffic
controllers have the tools they need for the
continued safety and efficiency of global travel.”
The FAA Tech
Center is a pillar of NextGen infrastructure and
home to some of the most important advancements in
aviation industry history. Among the tests being
conducted by the Tech Center team will be the
comparative analysis of the Aireon space-based ADS-B
data to that of existing ADS-B ground-station data.
“The collaboration
between Aireon, its service partner Harris, and the
FAA is a testament to our goal of working with
industry to continue pushing NextGen technology
forward,” says
Andy Leone,
surveillance and broadcast services, systems
engineering lead/test director at the FAA. “The
Aireon/Harris team has built a system that has huge
potential for improving services for many around the
world who lack some surveillance or advanced
separation tools, and we are independently
validating that their space-based ADS-B service
meets FAA established performance requirements for
broadcast surveillance. This test further
exemplifies the FAA’s and NextGen program’s
commitment to improving air traffic safety and
efficiency for global aviation.”
Aireon’s
space-based ADS-B system will be operational in
2018, shortly after completion of the Iridium NEXT
satellite constellation. The service will provide
Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) with global
air traffic surveillance and airlines with real-time
flight tracking. The first ten Iridium NEXT
satellites carrying the Aireon hosted-payloads were
launched into low-Earth-orbit from Vandenberg Air
Force Base on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, on January
14, 2017. Seven additional SpaceX launches are
scheduled to take place over the next 12 to 15
months, including the second launch now targeted for
June of 2017. In total, the operational
constellation will consist of 66 satellites, with an
additional nine serving as on-orbit spares. |