NEW TECHNOLOGY WILL MAKE AIR TRAVEL SAFER & FASTER
Consider this common scenario for an air traveler: You’re exhausted from a three-day business trip and would like nothing more than to be on the ground in Chicago. But thanks to a dense fog, your flight is delayed and you’re stuck in Kansas City. If the pilots can’t see the ground, they can’t land the plane, and traffic controllers can’t direct the aircraft to the gate.
Avionics researchers at Ohio University are working hard to make such air travel easier — and safer — for passengers, pilots, and airport officials. The Avionics Engineering Center houses a team of experts who are developing technologies that will help push airplane navigation, communications, and landing capabilities into the next generation.
Avionics researchers at Ohio University are working hard to make such air travel easier — and safer — for passengers, pilots, and airport officials. The Avionics Engineering Center houses a team of experts who are developing technologies that will help push airplane navigation, communications, and landing capabilities into the next generation.
SMOOTH LANDING :
When a pilot lands a plane in the midst of a Chicago rain storm, it isn’t because the aircraft has giant windshield wipers. Dials in the sea of cockpit instruments, operated by radio waves transmitted from the airport, tell the pilot exactly where the aircraftneeds to be to meet the runway.
Ohio University engineers develop models that help explain how that process can go wrong: Electromagnetic signals can scatter — bouncing off buildings, air traffic control towers, trucks, and the ground — and provide inaccurate information. When the aircraft receives incorrect guidance, it may instruct the pilot to fly into a parking lot or corn field, and not the final destination.
ENHANCING GPS :
Now that your plane has reached the ground on O’Hare’s new runway, you’d like to disembark. But that can be problematic in nasty weather. Air traffic controllers, ground crews, and pilots need a clear view of the ground to make it to the hangar. In the future, a new type of navigation system may be able to lead the pilot to the concourse through even a whiteout snow storm.
Now that your plane has reached the ground on O’Hare’s new runway, you’d like to disembark. But that can be problematic in nasty weather. Air traffic controllers, ground crews, and pilots need a clear view of the ground to make it to the hangar. In the future, a new type of navigation system may be able to lead the pilot to the concourse through even a whiteout snow storm.
GOING WIRELESS :
NASA Glenn Research Center to create giant wireless zones for airports. Pilots, air traffic controllers, and ground crews could use the network to communicate with each other and improve airport efficiency.
FREE FLYING :
Researchers are working on several navigation technologies that will allow airplanes to navigate as the crow flies, cutting minutes off of flight times. One of those technologies, Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), uses a network of ground stations that measure the distance to the aircraft in the sky.
NEXT GENERATION OF FLIGHT :
While the landing, navigation, and communication systems under development, it could improve commercial flights in the near future, the technologies also could turn up in smaller regional and business jets — which are expected to grow in number and usage in the upcoming years.
While the landing, navigation, and communication systems under development, it could improve commercial flights in the near future, the technologies also could turn up in smaller regional and business jets — which are expected to grow in number and usage in the upcoming years.
