Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 03/03/2010, in Interesting people, by steve
Mike Russo – Looking back on a lifetime in aviation
Mike, lead principal engineer and Executive Secretary of the AEEC has recently retired from Aeronautical Radio Incorporated (ARINC).
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
I grew up in a rural family with limited means and there were not that many people around me who could have served as examples for choosing a profession. But I did want to find a respected profession, doing respected work. At one point I took an aptitude test and it showed that I would make a good mechanical engineer. My focus from then on was on science subjects. An uncle was a tool and die maker and I got a lot of support from him.
What moved you to become part of the aviation family?
I went to Lake Michigan Community College for an associates degree as a technician and then Michigan Technological University where I got my Bachelor’s Degree… Afterwards I got a job with Westinghouse and in 1971 they sent me to the FAA Academy to learn about the principles of ILS. On my return, I worked on various ILS projects including ground site design and field work for ILS installations including flight testing with the FAA.
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Passengers are not the only ones who need good communications – pilots do too!
On 14/11/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
Few parts of aircraft have evolved as little as the communications capability. OK, we no longer use tubes in the radios but other than that, the VHF AM system is as legacy as they come. To add insult to injury, when the shortage of frequencies in the aviation band finally forced the industry to do something, instead of going for a modern and future proof solution, the channel spacing was split from 25 to 8.33 kHz. While partially solving the frequency problem, this solution did little more then perpetuating the shortcomings of the legacy voice system for decades to come. Who wants to think about yet another upgrade when the industry has just recently invested in 8.33? This sad picture in the voice communications arena is matched by an even bigger problem in air/ground data communications.
While the world has moved to high-speed comms en-masse, aviation is still stuck with ACARS (slow) SATCOM (slow and expensive) and VDL Mode 2 which offers the most, at least in continental airspace.
In the meantime, more and more airlines and aircraft types are offering truly cutting edge technology to enable passengers to send
email, browse the internet, watch television and (brrrr!) even use their cell phones in flight. Earlier attempts, like Connexion by Boeing were not a huge success but this has not discouraged airlines like Lufthansa from signing up with new contenders. True, these now offer much more efficient and reliable service, so the added value is there. In fact, there are several new offerings on the market, all competing to get on board somebody’s aircraft. Clearly, passengers’ thirst for maintaining their connectivity while airborne is an irresistible force for airlines and providers alike.
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A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 3
On 24/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Pioneers to the rescue
In spite of the positive business case, airspace users were not exactly rushing to equip with air/ground digital link. Because of the slow down of traffic growth in the wake of 9/11, the expected ACARS problems did not materialize and the ATC frequency congestion was also pushed far into the future. In other industries, such a period of respite might have been used to prepare for the times when business recovery would once again make air//ground digital link essential. But that is not how aviation works. With the immediate threat receding and even some of the big carriers fighting for survival, enthusiasm for investing in things that would generate benefits only many years down the road cooled.
Of course for the planners of the ATM system this was a situation that spelled trouble for later. The frequency congestion problems were not a mirage even if for the time being those problems slipped into the future. The need to put together a comprehensive kit of capacity enablers had not become less important, only the urgency had changed somewhat. For LINK2000+ the big question was: how to jump start equipage? The question was not self serving at all. If Maastricht UAC controllers did not get digital link equipped aircraft to work with, it would be impossible to build and maintain proficiency and to shake down the system in real operational circumstances.
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A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 2
On 18/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The clash of VDL Mode 4 and VDL Mode 2
Following years of testing and discussions on countless forums, VDL Mode 2 was emerging as the solution that, combined with the ATN protocol, could support the initial implementation of Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications. There was nothing else it could do but it had a huge advantage over everything else. There was agreement that it would do the trick! Some people tended to consider this virtue as being of little value but in fact it was as important as the link’s ability to perform. Achieving consensus on the scale needed to decide which link to use is an epic hurdle and when agreement is there, it should not be put in danger.
But that is exactly what was being done by the promoters of another technology that goes under the name VDL Mode 4. VDL Mode 4 can do everything, they claimed… It does voice, text messages and also ADS-B! Most of the claims were of course true and the initial hiccups with the system were no reason to discard it. Yet it never made it into the mainstream and the hard push did only one thing: delayed the inevitable, the final agreement on Mode 2. VDL Mode 4 lacked the most important element: industry agreement for implementation.
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A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 1
On 12/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Introduction
Talking to a group of young controllers the other day I suddenly realized that Controller Pilot Digital Link Communications (CPDLC) and its enabler, air/ground digital link were a kind of given for them… Their centre has either already implemented it or had plans for it and while their opinion diverged on the usefulness of the thing, they certainly did not consider it as anything exciting. In a way this is good. The more everyday air/ground digital link becomes, the more we can consider having cleared a major hurdle in implementing an important capacity enabler.
But not being familiar with the history of a particular development reduces our ability to understand its shortcomings and its future potential.
With this article I would like to put on the table a few, sometimes amusing, sometimes incredible, details from the last 15 years of so about air/ground digital link development in the hope that it will be provide some insight into what is after all a very exciting development in air traffic management.
The story will not be comprehensive; it is only a summary and is based mainly on my recollections. I was pretty close to the fire but possibly for that very reason I may have seen things in a light that was colored differently from the actual reality. If you have better information, do comment on my version of the tale.
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