Volume 9, Number 5 • September/October 2001 • Aerospace Technology Development

Airborne Tracking System Being Tested

Keeping up with aircraft flying over the Gulf of Mexico is difficult if not impossible in some instances. Now that may change, with the help of NASA and the Department of Transportation (DoT), which are testing a new in-flight tracking system that is smaller, less costly and more flexible than anything seen to date.

The Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) project, led by NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California and the DoT’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is being put through its paces in Louisiana, offshore from Intercoastal City. The current testing is designed to evaluate the operational benefits of the system for fleet management in the Gulf.

The in-flight tracking system uses multiple small ground stations to triangulate on an aircraft’s transponder signal, accurately determining its position. “Radar coverage, particularly at low altitudes, is non-existent over most of the Gulf of Mexico. The in-flight tracking system will provide operators with precise aircraft position data. The data from the tests will be evaluated by operators as a possible flight tracking system,” said Mike Landis, AATT project manager at Ames.

The system’s attributes permit ground stations to be placed in areas that are not feasible for beacon radar. This includes remote areas, open water and sites with mountainous terrain. These characteristics make the system particularly suitable for tracking low-flying aircraft that cannot be monitored adequately by standard radar systems. Q

For more information, contact Cathy Pochel at NASA Ames Research Center, Commercial Technology Office, 650/604-4595 or cpochel@mail.arc.nasa.gov, http://ctoserver.arc.nasa.gov/ Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

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