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Keith Connes |
It is certainly awe-inspiring to witness the cascade of new avionics
that are unveiled continuously. But what about the future? What
can we expect to see in the months and years ahead? Well, the
black box manufacturers are notoriously reticent about revealing
what's being cobbled up in their respective skunkworks; for one
thing, they don't want to give away their plans to the competition,
and for another, they're not eager to undercut the sales of their
current products. But we can come up with a pretty good picture,
based on a combination of industry trends, tidbits picked up here
and their, and information released by the government.
So here goes. Let's start with some of the innovations that have
already been pioneered by several manufacturers and are likely
to multiply into a wide range of products. And you won't be surprised
to note that all of these new directions relate to Global Positioning
System nav receivers and other GPS-oriented devices.
GPS/Comms:
These are systems that combine-either all in one box or in separate
modules-GPS nav with VHF comm capability. In this case, the whole
is greater than the sum of its parts because the GPS position
information is used by the system's computer to call up the appropriate
comm frequencies for the pilot to select. The most sophisticated
of these systems to date is Northstar's Smart/Comm; as an example
of how it uses its smarts, if you have just fired up, Smart/Comm's
computer knows you are not moving and will therefore present you
with your airport's ATIS, clearance delivery, ground control,
and tower frequencies. You can select the desired frequency and
activate it at the press of a key-and so on, throughout all the
regimes of your ensuing flight. Bendix/King offers two not-quite-as-clever
GPS/comms, one of which is a hand-held. It's a fairly easy prediction
that we'll be seeing more GPS/comms of varying degrees of sophistication,
and in time the VOR-based nav/comm will be a museum piece.
PC Updates:
More and more manufacturers are offering interface kits that enable
the user to update the GPS database by means of a diskette and
a cable connection to a personal computer. Some of the software
allows you to perform additional functions, such as uploading
flight plans (routes) and downloading the track history of a flight.
This capability will expand to the point where you will be able
to update the operating software of your receiver in the same
way. If, for example, the manufacturer comes up with a map that
shows rivers, highways, and cities, you'll be able to plug this
improvement into your receiver via the PC interface. II Morrow's
new Precedus hand-held has this PC updatability, plus a relatively
large amount of memory for expansion. The Precedus is designed
along the lines of a PC. A new company called Avidine goes even
further, with a panel-mounted system whose open architecture will
accept software from third party vendorstruly like a PC.
Precision Approaches:
GPS in the IFR environment has made rapid strides, and there are
now more than 4000 GPS non-precision approaches, with more being
added all the time. The goal is to have at least one approach
for nearly every public use airport. Precision approaches, with
vertical as well as lateral guidance, will require supplemental
equipment, since GPS altitude data is not sufficiently precise
at present. A technology known as differential GPS will be utilized
for precision approaches. This involves the use of ground-based
monitors that can correct the GPS errors, using their own locations
as a reference. At present, a few GPS precision approaches are
being installed in Canada and Australia; we should start getting
some in the US by 1997.
Color Moving Maps:
Until recently, there was a GPS receiver that had a built-in color
moving map, and that was Ashtech's Altair AV-12, substantially
priced at $8,500. But Ashtech has discontinued the AV-12 and gone
out of the aviation business, which is unfortunate. Color is not
just pretty to look at; it is useful in such functions as helping
the pilot to differentiate between, say, airport and VOR icons,
and can provide a visual alert to nearby special use airspace.
Eventide now offers color versions of their Argus 5000 and 7000,
and Avidine (mentioned above) along with another new company called
Archangel, have color map systems in the prototype stage. Of course,
you can assemble a color system using a GPS sensor, moving map
software, and a color laptop or notebook PC, but while this type
of setup has certain advantages, an all-in-one panel-mounted system
is neater and more convenient.
With their incomparable graphic position information, moving maps
are deservedly growing in popularity, and they will be a "must"
in future receivers. At first, many of them may still be monochrome,
but look at what happened with weather radar systems: the original
models were monochrome and today they are all color. Incidentally,
Eventide's color display (along with most radar units, and TV
sets as well) utilizes cathode ray tube technology. This will
be supplanted by LCD active matrix color, which draws less current,
is a lot cooler, and can be manufactured in depths of only an
inch or so. LCD color displays are used today in some corporate
and commercial avionics (as well as upper-end laptop and notebook
computers), but they are presently more expensive than CRTs.
Collision Avoidance:
As pilots, we are concerned with colliding with two types of objects:
those on the ground, such as terrain and man-made structures,
and those in the air-mostly other aircraft. GPS equipment can
vastly reduce both types of risk. Ground objects are the easier,
because their locations can be plotted and embedded in a receiver's
database. Then, since the receiver knows where you are, including
your approximate altitude, it can alert you when you are in proximity
of a mountain, TV tower, etc. In fact, Arnav presently offers
such a system, the MFD 5000, but since it takes up a pretty sizable
amount of panel real estate, it's not for everybody. As for collision
avoidance with other aircraft, eventually we can expect to be
using a plane-to-plane system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance,
which will utilize on-board GPS equipment that will continuously
broadcast its position to other similarly equipped aircraft. Obviously,
the effectiveness of this system will be directly related to how
many aircraft will have the equipment on board.
GPS Attitude Indicator:
Someday the gyro-operated attitude indicator may be a thing of
the past. Experiments are in progress using GPS sensors on various
parts of the airplane for attitude information. For example, the
equipment would know if you were in a left bank because your left
wing would have a lower GPS altitude than your right wing. That's
an oversimplification, and keep your present attitude indicator
in good repair, because this development has a way to go.
* * *
Well, that's our glimpse into the future, soundly based on known
technology. There'll be more to come, so stay tuned.
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