When ADS-B technology was deployed in remote parts of Alaska as part of the Capstone project, accidents declined by about 40 percent. Now an Alaskan entrepreneur is helping developing aviation systems in China and Africa to leapfrog over the expensive step of installing conventional radar and use ADS-B instead. “This is the air traffic management system of the future. It’s the silver bullet,” Robert “Skip” Nelson, CEO of ADS-B Technologies, told the Alaska Journal of Commerce. “It’s cheap and it’s easy to install.” It costs about $140,000 to install the ground-based transceivers and about $15,000 to equip each aircraft, compared to $60 million for a radar installation and the manpower to run it, according to the Journal. Nelson said China has installed seven ground units and plans to equip 210 aircraft that will be used at a Chinese university where 2,500 students are studying to be pilots. He is also working on ADS-B projects in Ethiopia and South America. China has liberalized its flight rules in response to the deployment of the new technology, according to the Journal.
