Faster Flights Are Coming With New Satellite Tracking Technology (bloomberg.com) 34
An anonymous reader shares a report: The company that provides the U.K.'s air-traffic control service is taking a 10 percent stake in Aireon, a U.S. firm that's building a satellite-based tracking system and will offer commercial services to controllers starting next year. Aireon plans to use a constellation of 66 Iridium Communications. Next satellites in low Earth orbit to track aircraft. Iridium has 50 in orbit already, 47 of which are operational. Each carries equipment to offer aircraft position data to ground controllers.
Iridium plans to launch five additional satellites on May 22 from California, completing its full network later this year. Aireon said 70 percent of the world's airspace lacks satellite tracking or airline surveillance coverage, including most oceans and parts of Africa and Latin America.
Iridium plans to launch five additional satellites on May 22 from California, completing its full network later this year. Aireon said 70 percent of the world's airspace lacks satellite tracking or airline surveillance coverage, including most oceans and parts of Africa and Latin America.
Typical Summary (Score:5, Informative)
Typical /. summary doesn't even include the reason for the headline...
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Doesn't explain why it would be faster.
Bandwidth != latency
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Instead of flying 40 miles around another plane, they can keep it around 15 miles.
It's the difference between the first lane on a race track and the 100th outside lane. That outside lane has quite a lot of ground to cover.
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And keep in mind, the 40-mile separation only needs to be adhered to where there's no radar service, e.g. over empty oceans. Otherwise the separation can be reduced to 3 miles laterally, or 1,000 feet vertically.
S
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A plane flying with 600 (nautic) miles does 40 miles in 4 minutes. Two planes approaching each other meet each other in 2 minutes ... cutting down flight safety protocols/procedures to 15 miles does not really sound plausible.
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Aireon said its satellite-based system could allow for 15 miles of separation on oceanic routes, making room for more planes.
While I'm sure that's technically true, long transoceanic routes are also pretty damn predictable. Once they've cleared the local air traffic their heading and cruise speed can be accurately projected hours ahead so it should only take very small early course adjustments to avoid flying "around" an incoming/crossing plane in the middle of the ocean. I suppose it could help if the skies were full that they could go more "bumper to bumper" but that would mainly just increase capacity. I just don't see the ben
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How? (Score:2, Informative)
How does that make flights faster?
The typical speed limitation is either for optimal fuel consumption or staying under the constructive limit where your wings no longer provide lift but you stall. You can increase either of them without making a new, re-engineered plane.
And for the ares around airports, where you enter a hold or a landing pattern, air traffic control radars already know where you are.
Re:How? (Score:5, Informative)
Because in OCA you will be able to apply much more flexible separation standards, allowing a mix of speeds (closing), earlier climbs, later descents, less speed imposition at crossing points and just push a whole lot more aircraft through choke points without having to slow the whole lot down to the speed of the LCD.
There's a shit-ton of ways that replacing 15 minutes with no closing longitudinal time standards, with more flexible distance standards free up the speed limits that are imposed now.
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Because in OCA you will be able to apply much more flexible separation standards, allowing a mix of speeds (closing), earlier climbs, later descents, less speed imposition at crossing points and just push a whole lot more aircraft through choke points without having to slow the whole lot down to the speed of the LCD.
There's a shit-ton of ways that replacing 15 minutes with no closing longitudinal time standards, with more flexible distance standards free up the speed limits that are imposed now.
Its not going to make flights any faster, it will just allow more flights to occupy the same route (allegedly, I've got my doubts about this slashvertisement). An airliner still cruises at around 900 KP/H which means you wont get there any faster. If we want to improve flight times, less time fucking about at the gate is the way to do it. Unfortunately this means somehow managing to herd the selfish, arrogant, FYIGM cats that we call people better. I'm pretty sure that we could cut 15 mins of any flight if
Doesn't help when you're sitting on the tarmac ... (Score:2)
... for 30 minutes.
It also doesn't help that these idiot airlines board the plane front-to-back instead of back-to-front, or even use BOTH the front and back doors for loading passengers.
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Load the plane back to front and the 1st class passengers are pissed and/or ignore it ("because I'm Delta Platinum Elite").
Load it front to back, and most people cheat anyway and the boarding gate people don't really enforce it.
They really should have added a second boarding door and load through two doors, although I guess this doesn't solve nimrods who pick the wrong doors.
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>
Is your anecdote more correct than mine?
Yes.
Aireon Partners... (Score:2)
Already available (Score:2)
To take advantage of planes flying closer, airports will probably need to expand significantly. Busy airports have planes landing about a minute apart now.
Maths? (Score:2)
Aireon plans to use a constellation of 66 Iridium Communications. Next satellites ... Iridium has 50 in orbit already ... Iridium plans to launch five additional satellites on May 22 from California, completing its full network later this year.