The FAA has approved technical and operational standards for ADS-B equipment, which means (among other things) that manufacturers can now move forward with products that provide pilots with conforming Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast hardware. Next up, the aviation community should expect the FAA’s final rule by April 2010 and that should define a mandate for ADS-B (out) equipage in controlled airspace by the year 2020 … provided the system is up and running by then. Your aircraft will not need to receive the information provided by ADS-B; it will just have to send it out. As it is, ADS-B ground equipment should have been installed at more than 300 locations nationwide by the end of next year (2010). The areas expected to have first operational capabilities include the Gulf of Mexico, Philadelphia and Juneau. One key to progress is NextGen funding and FAA reauthorization.
GAMA recognized the FAA’s latest action as an ADS-B milestone on the path towards NextGen. Aviation advocate GAMA is on record that financial incentives may be necessary to assure that operators adopt the equipment as soon as possible to maximize the long-term safety, capacity, economic and environmental benefits that NextGen is expected to provide. “As we shift from the planning to implementation stages of NextGen, it is even more critical that we move forward with reauthorization of the FAA and the discussion over the role of federal funding for onboard avionics equipage,” said Pete Bunce, GAMA president and CEO.
