ATM Magazine publishes an article on how Intersoft Services changes the value proposition for ANSPs by uwing drones for measuring their Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) systems:
“Let’s consider the current scenario: if an ANSP wants to measure the accuracy of their radar, instrument landing system (ILS) or other RF-based navigation aid there are two ways to do so.”
“First is the use of an aircraft, where the planes have to be scheduled and may or may not announce their arrival to air traffic control. During the test, traffic needs to be rerouted to avoid the testing area and NOTAMS need to be issued to alert pilots of the test schedule. If this were to happen on short notice you can imagine the possible airspace disruption around airports. During this time the test planes would work to achieve specific angles of take-off and landing for roughly four hours, including as many as 10 aborted landings. This would be disruptive to a civilian airport, but in a military location the airspace could be closed for as much as one week to conduct tests.”
“The second option is to conduct testing from the ground There can be challenges with interference from the airport buildings in this scenario making this unsuitable a the only option. Keep in mind that Ifiost ANSPs use a combination of airborne and ground-based testing and this is conducted, on average, twice a year. ICAO mandates checks every 180 or 360 days. For example, precision approach landing systems such as ILS can range between these timelines based on correlation between ground and flight checks With good correlation for flight checks, 360 days can be supported.”
“Intersoft Services has recently launched a solution called SkyRF® that addresses these measurement requirements with drones.”
