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Overview
Why we need Air Traffic Control (ATC) History Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) Air Traffic Control Beacon System (ATCBS) Transponders Mode S Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) Radar
History Timeline
World War I Pilots begin taking radios into planes 1920's - Airlines use radio to transmit weather information to pilots 1921 - Army deployed rotating beacons in a line between Columbus and Dayton, OH 1932 - Department of Commerce constructed 83 radio beacons that transmitted directional beams 1935 - First air traffic control tower established at the Newark International Airport in NJ World War II - Americans developed IFF (Identify Friend or Foe), installing transponders above Allied aircraft 1958 - Federal Aviation Agency, charged with establishing and running an air traffic control system
Notable Accidents
Grand Canyon, June 30, 1956 United Airlines DC-7 collided with a TWA Constellation 128 passengers killed. The aircraft were flying in uncontrolled airspace, under visual flight rules
New York City, Dec. 16, 1960 United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation over New York City killed 128 people on board and 8 people on the ground. The United flight had experienced partial navigation equipment failure but failed to report it to the air traffic controllers.
Notable Accidents
Hendersonville, NC, July 19, 1967 Piedmont Airlines B-727 collided with a private Cessna, 82 people killed. Accident was closely tied to lack of secondary surveillance radar and confusing transmissions by the air traffic control
Cerritos, CA, August 31, 1986 Aeromexico DC-9 with 64 passengers collided with a private Cessna aircraft carrying a family of three. The DC-9 crashed into a neighborhood and destroyed18 homes and killed 15 people on the ground. The accident was blamed on inadequate radar approach and departure equipment and procedures.
IFF
A ground-based transmitter, the interrogator, broadcasts a radio signal to the aircraft A transponder on the aircraft would receive and reply to this signal
Interrogations used very specific types of signals (1030 and 1090 MHz)
If a plane did not respond correctly the system determined that the target was an enemy aircraft
ATCRBS
System shares the same frequency bands as IFF
A sensor on the ground sends out an interrogation signal (1030 MHz) from a rotating antenna to aircraft flying in its sector Aircraft equipped with transponders receive these interrogations and send back a reply (1090 MHz)
There are two primary types of interrogations
Mode A interrogations are used for plane identification information Mode C interrogations are used for altitude information
Transponders
Mandated if aircraft flies above 10,000 ft or within 30 miles of a major airport
Primary Surveillance Radar (PSR) transmits radar energy detected by the aircraft by reflected radar energy
Aircraft return is displayed on the ATC console at a range and bearing with aircraft position
The Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) transmits a series of interrogation pulses received by the aircraft transponder
Transponder replies with a different series of pulses that gives aircraft identifier and altitude
PSR and SSR are synchronized, both returns will be displayed on the ATC console
Mode S
Discrete Address Beacon System (DABS) later renamed Mode S S=Select: uses discrete addressing to interrogate just one aircraft
Mode S Interoperability
Several specific design decisions that were influenced by interoperability:
Frequency - 1030/1090 MHz was made so Mode S and ATCRBS could communicate on the same channel Modulation - chosen partially to minimize the effects of interference due to shared frequency channels Signal Formats - the Mode S signal itself had to be designed so that it was transparent to existing transponders Error Correction - ATCRBS limitations forced the Mode S signal to be short, so parity and addressing bits were overlaid to maximize data block size
Mode S Frames
Transmission between transponder and station use 56 or 112 bit format called frames
Three Main categories:
56 bit Survellience formats 112 bit communication format with 56 bit data field 112 bit communication format with 80 bit data field
Planned Improvements
Two major Preplanned Product Improvements currently underway
Technology upgrades from 68020 to 68040 processors, currently in keysite test at Grand Junction, CO Traffic Information Service (TIS), a data link service that assist general aviation (GA) pilots in visual acquisition of surrounding air traffic by delivering automatic traffic advisories to the pilot, currently in keysite test at Dulles and Andrews AFB
TCAS I
Gives the pilot relative position and velocity of all aircraft within a 10-20 mile range Has a traffic advisory capacity which provides a warning when an aircraft in the vicinity gets too close Does not provide instructions on how to maneuver in order to avoid the aircraft Warns aircraft of other aircraft within +-8700 ft of aircrafts own altitude
Selected range
15-40 n miles forward 5-15 n miles aft 10-20 n miles each side
TCAS II
Provides pilots with airspace surveillance, intruder tracking, threat detection, and avoidance maneuver generations Determines whether each aircraft is climbing, descending, or flying straight and level, and suggests an evasive maneuver Evasive maneuvers are coordinated via air-to-air transmissions so the proposed maneuvers will not cancel each other out TCAS II Change 7, software changes and updated algorithms that alter operating parameters
Types of Radar
Altimeter Doppler
Weather
Altimeter
Radar transmissions to reflect off the surface immediately below the aircraft Provides absolute reading of altitude Differs from barometric or air data altimeter, which commonly reference sea level altitude Operates over a max range of 0 5000 ft
Doppler
Transmits energy through 3 or 4 beams skewed to the front and rear of the aircraft Radiated energy is reflected from the terrain Forward facing beams return a higher frequency, with the increase being proportional to the aircraft ground speed Aft facing beams returns a lower frequency Beams also detect lateral frequency difference from cross wind Sensitivity is 30 Hz per knot of speed Horizontal velocity error is on magnitude of 0.015 per cent per degree of error in pitch angle Common on helicopter, however GPS has phased it out of transport aircraft
Weather
Radiates energy in narrow beam reflected by clouds
Weather Radar
From Civilian Avionics Systems, Fig 5.32
Summary
Why we need Air Traffic Control (ATC) History Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) Air Traffic Control Beacon System (ATCBS) Transponders Mode S Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) Radar
Sources
http://www.tc.faa.gov/its/cmd/visitors/data/ACT300/modes.pdf http://mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2000/modes/index.html http://www.faa.gov/ATpubs/ATC/INDEX.HTM Book Civilian Avionics Systems, author Ian Moir and Allan Seabridge, AIAA education series, copyright 2003