Park and fly

The sheer magnitude of airport development in the MENA region means airports are increasingly introducing ATC modernisation and upgrade programmes.

Northrop Grumman’s Europe-based subsidiary, Park Air Systems, supplies a range of communication, navigation and surveillance solutions across the Middle East.

Back in 2007 it announced a $16 million contract to provide integrated air traffic systems for the Al Maktoum International Airport project. “The contract for Al Maktoum consolidated our position in the Gulf region,” affirmed Andrew Fiamingo, sales and marketing director Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems Norway.

The deal included the provision of ground movement radar (GMR), voice communications control systems (VCCS), very high frequency radios (VHF) and ILS systems.  

Fiamingo said: “The core of efficient ground surveillance is our Nova 9000 advanced surface movement guidance and control system (A-SMGCS), which fuses information supplied by various sensors located around the airfield.”

Nova 9000 manages the tracking of aircraft and vehicles on the ground using surveillance systems based on radar and multilateration. The system is configured to assist the efficient management of air traffic, particularly in periods of high traffic volume and during adverse weather conditions.

The system enables air traffic controllers to manage a greater volume of traffic by offering automated assistance in monitoring and predicting events, and by reducing off-screen distractions through presentation of all required information on the same display screen

The user is presented with a traffic situation display showing airport map, target labels with position and identification, aircraft information and other relevant targets on or near the airport manoeuvring area. Other textual and graphical information is available for presentation in various windows according to the tasks to be carried out at any particular controller working position.

Park Air Systems has previously provided GMR and ILS at Dubai International airport and Fiamingo points out that the technologies being installed are part of a continued effort as the airports expand. “Our involvement in the airport and airspace expansion will be one of continued support and evolution of the systems already supplied,” he said.

“The solutions supplied are designed to be expanded as the airports get bigger, thus helping the Dubai airport authorities to realise safe and efficient expansion to larger and more modern systems as and when required.”

Doha International Airport chose an integrated air traffic management system to help facilitate the anticipated rise in traffic volumes over the next few years. The package supplied by Park Air is a ground-to-air communications system, a surface movement guidance and control system, including surface movement radars and multilateration sensors, the ILS, and a digital voice and radar recording system.

At Al Maktoum International, Park Air supplied integrated digital end-to-end communications to provide ground-to-air voice communications with all aircraft that use the airport. The company said the system is a seamlessly integrated combination of the multimode digital radio and the VCCS. It enables controlling and monitoring of key radio functions directly from the ATC operator position.

During the implementation stage at Al Maktoum, Park provided daily on-site support over several months to ensure that all necessary electrical and electronic infrastructure in the control tower and associated technical building met design and schedule requirements. The European systems provider also performed the role of air traffic control integrator, with responsibility for planning, designing, delivering and installing a structured cabling infrastructure.

A-SMGCS has a number of nifty features. It is basically a surface movement radar (SMR) data processing system, which controls the surface movements of all aircraft and vehicles. It provides a daylight-clear picture of the airport operations area regardless of visibility conditions, with target and labelling displays. It also provides the capability to separate aircraft and vehicles, as well as differentiate between aircraft sizes.

Earlier this year, the company was awarded a contract by Spanish information technology company Indra Sistemas to supply A-SMGCS technology for the on-going Muscat International and Salalah International airports in Oman. The contract forms part of the nationwide air-traffic management modernisation and upgrade programme for the Directorate General of Meteorology and Air Navigation Services in Oman and is expected to be completed in April 2015.

“We are a sub-contractor to Indra Sistemas in Spain and we will be supplying the A-SMGCS display processing and multilateration system to Indra for both Muscat and Shalala airports,” explained Fiamingo

Park Air Systems has also delivered air traffic management solutions for other airports in the neighbouring Emirates and Gulf states. Works concluded in the UAE include the provision of a new communications suite of radios at Abu Dhabi International Airport. Also adding to the portfolio in the region is the delivery of the digital end-to-end communications system at the General Civil Aviation Authority in Abu Dhabi and an upgrade of the approach radar display system at Fujairah International Airport, which included short-term conflict alert, and minimum safe altitude warning functionalities.

“At the heart of the NOVA 9000 ATC automation and display system is the fusion engine, built-in to the surveillance data servers,” said Fiamingo.

“The fusion engine is designed to interface with any signal giving aircraft position with minimum customisation. Through decades of experience, our human machine interface has been refined to assist air traffic controllers in efficient management of aircraft in their daily operations.”

During the bidding stage, the developers of Al Maktoum International sought an efficient and state-of-the-art ILS system. Park Air Systems proposed its Normarc 7000B ILS solution. The system is installed at about 700 airports worldwide and various operators have reported that the design is cost-effective and easy to install and operate. It was developed in 1995 and has since gone through several updates and upgrades and it’s widely considered the most reliable and precise ILS on the market.

Park Air Systems delivered two complete Cat III-b ILS systems, one for each end of the first operational runway, at Al Maktoum International. There are three main categories of ILS and Cat III-b is currently the best available system on the market.  

ADS-B technology now provides air traffic controllers and pilots with much more accurate information to help keep aircraft safely separated, providing a live picture of the airspace and the aircraft in it. Both pilot and controller for the first time see the same real-time displays.

ADS-B effectively sidesteps radar surveillance. Radar is limited to update rates that are determined by the rotation rate of its antennas and, since it is a beam system, accuracy declines as an aircraft flies further away. ADS-B continues to expand globally with parts of the Middle East, South East Asia, India, Europe and North America already fully ADS-B compliant. 

Fiamingo notes the importance of this technology: “We see ADS-B as yet another technology giving us aircraft positioning information which is interfaced to the NOVA 9000 automation and display system. The inclusion of the ADS-B tracks strengthens the integrity of the information presented to the controller.”

The U.S FAA estimates that delays could be reduced by at least 35 to 40% with full ADS-B coverage by 2018. A typical twin-engine ADS-B equipped transatlantic flight could save 350lb of fuel per trip because aircraft are able to take a more direct route to their destination.