Dec. 19, 2008 -- If you're prone to anxiety on airplanes, you just might want to keep your eyes closed during takeoffs and landings: Soon, that aircraft out your window might actually BE as close as it appears.
As part of a plan to ease air traffic around the buzzing skies of New York City, Newark Liberty International Airport is becoming the first major airport in the nation to test a GPS-assisted system for routing aircraft to and from the runways.
The Ground Based Augmentation System, nicknamed GBAS, won't replace traditional radar -- at least not in the immediate future -- but if the test proves successful, the technology should compensate for radar's shortcomings, particularly in bad weather, and allow for less elbow room in the skies.
"This system will give us good-weather capability in bad-weather days," William DeCota, the aviation director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told Discovery News.
When visibility is hampered by rain, fog or snow, air traffic slows because it takes longer for pilots to get a view of the runway for landing. Rather than relying on radio-fed landing aids on the ground, the new system uses satellite signals augmented by ground-based antennas and a centrally located VHF transmitter to give pilots necessary information for landing.
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Data from the system currently in use can be compromised by radio interference, blocked channels and obstacles, such as by buildings, according to Eric Perrin, project manager of a European GBAS project by an air safety organization known as EUROCONTROL, which has been testing a system at regional airports near Frankfurt, Germany, and Toulouse, France, since 2006.
Also, each runway needs to be outfitted with instruments to relay approach and landing data to pilots.
With GBAS, "within a meter, you get this absolutely accurate approach signal," DeCota said.
For now, FAA rules will keep aircraft about three miles apart, but if the new technology delivers on its promise, those zones could be narrowed considerably.
"There's a lot of friction built into the system so that we can assure safety in an environment that uses radar, controller directions and pilot execution," DeCota said.
In addition to inclement weather landings, GBAS also would enable pilots to approach runways from curved paths, rather than flying only in straight approach corridors used today, easing traffic pileups.
"If you could bring planes in on curved approaches, you actually have more capability built into the system," DeCota said.
The GBAS was among 77 recommendations presented to managers last year by a panel set up to study ways to improve travel services at New York-area airports.
Newark International has one of the worst records for on-time air travel in the country.
The Port Authority announced this week it will invest about $2.5 million to equip the Newark airport for satellite-aided landings. Continental Airlines, which accounts for 65 percent of Newark's air traffic, will pay about $1 million to outfit 15 planes and train its pilots on the new system.
DeCota said he hopes to begin tests in Newark by August.
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