Sharper eyes in the sky
Houston company FlightAware aids in the development of a product that will use 66 satellites to track aircraft
A Houston company is helping create a product to better track planes and, ideally, prevent any from being lost like doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
FlightAware announced Wednesday that it is partnering with Aireon to launch Global Beacon, a product that will use 66 low-Earth-orbit satellites to track planes in real time across the globe. Expected to be in operation by 2018, Global Beacon is designed to eliminate dead zones that current tracking methods often encounter. Such zones are created, for example, when planes cross the North Pole or fly from the continental U.S. to Hawaii without proper on-plane satellite technologies.
“It will have a huge impact on the industry and on flight safety,” said Daniel Baker, CEO of FlightAware, a flight tracking data company started in 2005.
Baker said current tracking methods involve a hodgepodge of three systems: radar and other ground-based surveillance when flying over land, costly satellite equipment installed on planes to broadcast location when fly-
ing over oceans and pilots radioing air-traffic control with their latitude and longitude.
“Planes go out of touch all the time,” Baker said.
That makes it difficult for airline operators to know if planes are flying through a dead zone or are in distress. GlobalBeacon addresses this problem by piggybacking off equipment that the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring planes to have by 2020 if they operate in certain airspace. This Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, known as ADS-B, emits signals to provide the plane’s location. Other governments are adopting it, too.
Aireon will use the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation to receive these signals from space, eliminating dead zones by always being above the planes. FlightAware will then put this data into maps and other usable information that can be accessed through its website or mobile app.
“If a plane stops reporting its position, the airline can know within minutes, not hours,” Baker said.
GlobalBeacon will also help airlines comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization requirements for tracking planes every 15 minutes by 2018 and tracking planes in distress every minute by 2021.
Aviation, it seems, is finally adopting satellite technologies akin to those used for Google Maps.
“The FAA has been traditionally slow to adopt any new technologies,” said Jeff Price, professor of aviation management at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
That’s partly due to bureaucracy and partly due to safety. He said the agency wants to adopt technologies that have been proven in a dynamic environment.
He also sees GlobalBeacon as part of a larger trend. All countries in the International Civil Aviation Organization are moving toward the ability to track planes with satellites.
“I think it’s going to be a lot safer once we have all of this,” said Price, lead author of “Practical Aviation Security: Predicting and Preventing Future Threats.”
Henry Harteveldt, founder of San Franciscobased Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry research company, called satellite-based technology an advancement from traditional radar.
“It offers the potential to provide more accurate, real-time information,” he said.
Radars are early to mid-20th-century technology, though Harteveldt acknowledged that they’ve improved over the years.
Satellite tracking also might allow some planes to fly different routes if they’re not tied to landbased radars, he said. New routes could reduce flight time and fuel use.
Bonnie Montano, professor of operations and information management at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, noted that satellite tracking already is used for many commercial purposes, including keeping tabs on Amazon.com deliveries.
“It was time for the airline industry to tap into that technology,” she said.