Air traffic control using satellite-based technology to replace traditional ground-based systems is the objective of FAA planners, members and guest of SCAA learned at an April dinner meeting in Los Angeles.

Bill Withycombe, FAA administrator for the western U.S. and Pacific areas and a director of SCAA, gave the audience a detailed preview of ways in which the FAA is modernizing air traffic control to keep pace with 21st century challenges. He was accompanied by two California-based FAA officials, Ed Orosz, a support specialist in the regional traffic control center (TRACON) at Miramar, and Jere Hayslett, who works with traffic surveillance broadcast services.

New methods of routing air traffic will improve the environment by reducing noise and aircraft fuel burn, Withycombe said. Safety at airports will be enhanced by such new equipment as colored lights embedded in runways and taxiways to alert pilots to other ground traffic nearby. Controllers and pilots will make increased use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to track aircraft in the air and on the ground.

 

Orosz outlined a new system for aircraft approaching runways called “optimized profile descents”, allowing aircraft to descend with engines set to flight idle, lowering noise and fuel burn. At LAX alone, he said, this could save over two million gallons of fuel per year and avoid putting 41 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.

Haslett said the Southern California TRACON center is responsible for traffic to and from 46 public airports in this region, involving over two million operations per year in one of the world’s busiest flight areas.