Status of the FAA's Capstone Program

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AERONAUTICAL MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS PANEL Working Group C Meeting No. 1 Montreal, Quebec, Canada 11-19 October 2000

Agenda Item 6: Future Systems

Status of the FAA’s Capstone Program

Presented By: Brent Phillips, USA (Prepared By: Chris Moody)

Information Paper

SUMMARY

This paper provides status of the FAA’s Capstone program and its operational use of the UAT data link for Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) for ATC “radar-like” services. Page 2 of 4 AMCP/WG C-WP/6

1. Background

1.1 The FAA’s Alaska Region Capstone Program is a safety improvement initiative. Initially it will include the installation of bundled avionics capability including data link transceiver, cockpit display system, GPS navigator and terrain data base--at FAA expense. The initial program funding will equip 150 participating aircraft and establish 11 data link ground stations in Western Alaska. This paper discusses the accomplishments and status of the program relative to its use of ADS-B.

2. Capstone Use of ADS-B

2.1 A key element in Capstone that will change the future face of aviation around the world is ADS-B. Although aviation plans call for broad ADS- B deployment in support of future traffic management concepts, no long term decision on ADS-B data link technology has been made. Currently, three data link systems, Mode S, VDL-4, and UAT (Universal Access Transceiver) are candidates under consideration for use in the NAS (National Airspace System). A link decision, expected by June 2001, may provide for one or more of the three systems. Instead of waiting on this decision, the leadership in Alaska's aviation community decided the safety benefits from early deployment of an ADS-B system far outweighed the risk associated with waiting for the link decision. Thus Capstone published its requirements (March 1999) and requested industry proposals in an open solicitation. Responses were received from vendors proposing each of the candidate links. UPSAT (UPS Aviation Technologies) proposed use of the MITRE Corporation's UAT design and following a "proof-of-concept" demonstration in August 1999 the UPSAT/UAT system was selected due to system capability and overall cost. In addition, perceived ease of implementing flight data uplink impacted the system selection.

2.2 Ground Broadcast Transceivers (GBTs) receive ADS-B messages from aircraft and forward the resulting surveillance reports to the Anchorage Center ATC automation system. For an ADS-B equipped aircraft, each GBT enables the functional equivalent of radar, for about one fiftieth (1/50) the cost. Additionally, each GBT also supports the uplink of broadcast products.

2.3 Following completion of certification activities in January 2000, aircraft equipage began. Currently, there is a fleet of over 90 aircraft operating in commercial service every day in the Yukon/Kuskokwim Delta using ADS-B air-to-air as an enhancement to VFR situational awareness. The full 150 aircraft are expected to be equipped by Summer 2001. Page 3 of 4 AMCP/WG C-WP/6

2.4 Recognizing the potential benefits, leaders of the aviation industry wrote the FAA Administrator requesting Capstone ADS-B be approved for use by ATC (Air Traffic control) in providing "radar-like" services in non- radar airspace, including use in IFR conditions. On January 3, 2000, Administrator Garvey responded favorably provided ADS-B could be shown to be at least as accurate and reliable as radar and committed to making this determinations by January 1, 2001.

2.5 This triggered several activities, including development of an Interim Design Specification for UAT since a MOPS does not yet exist. Initial system testing was conducted at FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center in New Jersey in May and later, in August, follow-up flight testing of the entire system (Figure 1) was conducted in Bethel. Additional data was collected and analyzed over a 30 day period to further ensure accuracy and end-to-end system reliability.

Cape Newenham Long Range Radar/ADS-B Comparison: Turning Track

594 Radar returns (12 second scan interval) ADS-B reports (1 second transmission interval)

593 s t

i 592 n u

e n a l P

589 m e t s

y 588 S

587 Flight of FAA’s N40 with Capstone avionics in vicinity 586 of Bethel AK, 21 Aug 2000

585 1615 1617 1619 1621 1623 1625 1627 1629 System Plane 1 nmi E/W units

Figure 1. Comparison of Radar and ADS-B Page 4 of 4 AMCP/WG C-WP/6

2.6 Procedures were developed for both Air Traffic Control and flight crew use of ADS-B. Generally, ADS-B procedures are identical to radar. The main difference is instead of being issued a discrete 4 digit transponder “beacon code” by Air Traffic Control, each aircraft transmits its own permanent airframe address. This permanent address is programmed into each aircraft’s UAT system during installation. The UAT design also includes a "privacy" mode, which transmits a randomly generated address for each flight rather than the aircraft specific address. This provides the functional equivalent of a 1200 transponder code with a traditional radar system. Pilots desiring ATC service must ensure their equipment is transmitting their aircraft specific address prior to contacting ATC.

2.7 Finally, the UAT system operating frequency was shifted from its “experimental” assignment at 966 Mhz to an operationally protected assignment at 981 Mhz. This required replacing cards in each of UAT units. This transition took approximately three weeks.

2.8 On January 1, 2001 Capstone “radar-like” services using UAT/ADS-B became operational marking the first operationally approved use of ADS- B anywhere in the world. But it should be noted that all the equipment installed in Capstone aircraft, although fully certified, is government owned, and private copies are not available for sale. Although the benefits of ADS-B, air to air, and air to ground are intuitively obvious, the data link portion of this equipment remains out of reach of private individuals pending the development of the RTCA standards.

3. Future Plans for Expanding the Data Link Infrastructure

3.1 The program is taking the following steps to realize the expansion of the data link portion of the Capstone system.

 supporting the development of the UAT MOPS since this standard is required for users to “self equip” with the UAT system.

 securing funding for data link ground stations throughout the state of Alaska

 developing TIS-B and FIS-B services for uplink to help encourage equipage once the standard is in place.

 Making required changes to the ATC automation system to allow use of ADS-B on airport surface vehicles.