Rapid reaction

Advanced IT systems are at the heart of better airline communications and safety systems. Since the loss of MH370 last year, aerospace communications companies have accelerated IT systems research, so airlines can track their fleets 24/7.

by CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, TOM BALLANTYNE  

May 1st 2015

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It is hardly surprising, given the still unresolved disappearance of its MH370 flight 14 months ago, that Malaysia Airlines will be the first carrier to incorporate upgraded global flight tracking into its operations. Read More »

The Malaysian flag carrier has conducted extensive testing on the AIRCOM^® FlightTracker, which has been developed by communications conglomerate, SITA, and its subsidiary, OnAir.

The system uses existing equipment and re-purposes air traffic control data, making it a cost effective solution for airlines.

SITA OnAir’s system allows airlines straightforward access to ATC-like tracking data said Ian Dawkins, chief executive of SITA OnAir.

Since the disappearance of MH370 on March 8 last year, communications and information technology vendors across the globe have rushed to develop tracking systems that will meet the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Multidisciplinary Meeting on Global Flight Tracking.

After the meeting, in May last year, ICAO called for “global tracking of airline flights…to provide early notice of and response to abnormal flight behavior”.

The meeting also concluded that airlines “will be encouraged to use existing equipment and procedures to the extent possible to support flight tracking”. The same principles were repeated by the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Aircraft Tracking Task Force in its report and recommendations last November and were reinforced at ICAO’s Second High Level Safety Conference in Montreal in February this year.

In March, ICAO secretary-general, Raymond Benjamin, told an ASEAN Aviation Summit in Langkawi, Malaysia the organization expected airlines to adopt a 15-minute global flight reporting standard by November next year.

“Despite a one in a hundred million chance of MH370 happening again, we must react rapidly when public trust is involved,” he told delegates.

The new tracking measures are initial steps in the development of a Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) that has been endorsed by ICAO.

From 2021, new aircraft entering service must to report every minute when they are “in distress or under abnormal flight conditions”. “These proposals are performance-based, so that airlines can choose the technology to implement them,” Benjamin said. A trial of the 15-minute reporting rule will be done mid-year in the Asia-Pacific. Benjamin expected 12 airlines to participate, along with ARINC, Inmarsat, SITA and other communications providers that are coming forward with tracking solution packages.

The GADSS includes recommendations for search-and-rescue procedures and the retrieval of flight recordings. Cockpit voice recorders should have a 25-hour capacity.

The director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), Andrew Herdman, said the industry would use the trial to establish a time line for upgrading global flight tracking.

“If you look further ahead, with Iridium and others putting up satellite constellations that would give us truly global coverage, then that will be a very comprehensive solution for aircraft that are properly equipped.” In the shorter term, he pointed out, there are gaps in tracking systems and and a variety of technologies have to be used.

“This is why discussions at the ICAO High Level Safety meeting were focused on performance-based requirements. Airlines are saying tell us what you want us to do, don’t tell us how to do it because that’s second guessing about the most appropriate technologies?” he explained. “And there’s no shortage of vendors trying to be part of these solutions. There’s a lot of activity going on, but it is complex,” Herdman said.

The word “tracking” engenders many different topics, the AAPA director general explained. “Tracking of aircraft in distress and trying to identify where the aircraft was lost for search-and-rescue, that’s one thing. It is very different from regular routine tracking of ordinary aircraft.

“We’ve got to be careful. What’s the motive for improving tracking? It’s mostly focused on aircraft that are getting into distress or may be in distress. We must ask how could we improve the accuracy of information in that phase? There is a very small number of aircraft that get into that situation. The question of how to track 100,000 flights a day is a different one.”

Herdman said there are big improvements ahead, but they won’t happen tomorrow. “Once the satellite constellations are up and running, in the next three to five years, then we can routinely track flights using global satellite coverage,” he said.

“At the moment, the odd fact is we can track [flights] when they are over land because the ADSB receivers can pick up signals. But when you are over oceanic airspace existing satellite capabilities are very limited. The aircraft can tell the satellite where it is, but the satellite can’t relay it back to the ground where the information can be used.

“This is why we are still reliant on radio, VHF and HF, as part of that tracking.”

While the industry awaits full satellite coverage, upgraded systems are coming on to the market to meet airlines’ interim requirements. SITA OnAir announced its deal with Malaysia Airlines at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany.

“We have designed the solution so airlines have straightforward access to ATC-like tracking data,” said Ian Dawkins, chief executive of SITA OnAir. “For those airlines already using our ACARS messaging, we can deploy it very quickly. Following the recent ICAO discussions, we are also working on the definition and development of a new system to detect and report unusual situations. We are also investigating new aircraft solutions that are independent of aircraft power or systems.”

Also in Hamburg, Inmarsat announced its second Global Xpress (GX) satellite, part of a constellation that will provide global coverage. It completed its orbital deployment stages on schedule, followed by three weeks of payload testing.

“These were the final deployments to be performed, signalling the last significant mission risk for the I-5 F2 spacecraft,” said Michele Franci, chief technology officer at Inmarsat.

The company’s third satellite, I-5 F3, is to be launched by next month. Together with I-5 F1 and I-5 F2, the three satellites will link up to become the world’s first globally available Ka-band mobile broadband satellite network, provided by one company, over land, sea and in the air.

Honeywell Aerospace, Inmarsat and Kymeta, a company that develops innovative flat-panel antennas for satellite communications, chose Hamburg to announce they are working together to create a new, higher-speed Ka-Band wireless antenna for business and commercial aircraft.

They said the system will provide faster connectivity and a higher quality broadband service to the aircraft. The smaller and more compact design will allow the antenna to be installed on a wider variety of aircraft, including private business jets. The flat-panel design is lighter and will reduce weight and drag on the aircraft, in turn reducing fuel and maintenance costs.

“Honeywell’s work with Inmarsat on GX Aviation is at the forefront of bringing high-speed, global connectivity services to airlines and operators,” said Jack Jacobs, vice president of marketing & product management at Honeywell Aerospace.

“Having Kymeta and Inmarsat aligned with us ensures we stay forward-looking with new antenna technology that will be more efficient and compact, providing customers with even faster global in-flight connectivity.”

While all of those developments are critical to improving aircraft in trouble, improving air safety is only one outcome. These systems offer high speed global Wi-Fi access for passengers. Wi-Fi in the sky is taking off, with the number of commercial aircraft worldwide equipped with Wi-Fi, cell service or both forecast to more than triple in the next decade, from 4000 to 14,000.

Much of this growth will be in the Asia-Pacific, according to research consultancy, IHS. Even with a tripling in demand, only half of the worldwide fleet will be wired for Wi-Fi by 2022,

However, with rival systems and standards such as Ku band and Ka band evolving at a fast pace, airlines face the dilemma of choosing the right system.

Equipping fleets costs hundreds of millions of dollars, and airlines and fear their investment may quickly become obsolete. An example is Germany’s Lufthansa. A decade ago, it bought into Boeing’s Connexion in-flight Wi-Fi. The system did not sell and was shelved after the German flag carrier had spent millions equipping its planes with the service.

Demonstrating the GX system at the Hamburg show, Honeywell said it can deliver up to 50 megabits per second consistently around most of the globe. It plans to run tests on its own plan in mid-year, while Air China is expected to start trials with it in late 2014 or early 2015.