Rockwell Collins MultiScan Radars
Find Favor with Asia-Pacific Carriers

Collins WXR-2100

A growing number of airlines, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, are opting for Rockwell Collins avionics after evaluating the company's advanced WXR-2100 MultiScan Weather Radar.

"This radar has proven to be a differentiator in competitions for new aircraft avionics," says Steve Piller, VP and general manager of Rockwell Collins Air Transport Systems. The latest is EVA Airways, which has just chosen a full suite of Rockwell Collins avionics for the ten firm and two optioned Airbus A330s it will begin accepting next year.

The WXR-2100 is part of an integrated communication, navigation, safety and surveillance package.

Most weather radars detect inclement weather ahead of the aircraft by looking downwards at a shallow angle as they sweep an arc along the path of flight, but this involves some severe compromises. The shallow-angled beam can find it difficult to warn of weather at short range, or to warn of weather hazards at different ranges (such as what is it doing here, and then where we're going) without manual operation by the flight crew. In addition, the tilt angles required to minimize ground clutter are not those best suited to detect the development of bad weather.

Collins' solution with the WXR-2100 is, of course, heavily computer dependent. Data from multiple, automated antenna scans at different ranges and tilt angles is stored and compared in order to present the flight crew with a combined image. Most importantly, the radar's memory allows it to monitor the build up of cumulonimbus clouds associated with thunderstorms and turbulence, and it can warn of storm cells as they develop into potential hazards to the aircraft.

Future software enhancements will allow the radar to tell the height of the cloud tops, too, thus enhancing windshear detection and helping pilots avoid inadvertent penetration of the tops of thunderstorms.

Engineers at Collins believe many reports of clear air turbulence, especially on Pacific routes, in reality stem from storms that develop rapidly below the line of sight of traditional weather radars. The WXR-2100 includes an "Over Flight Protection" feature that avoids this by monitoring and signaling convective activity below and just ahead of the aircraft. A future enhancement will add an automatic turbulence-alerting function.

By automating the WXR-2100 and providing an interpretive display, Collins has made weather information easily available with a reduced cockpit workload. "The operation and interpretation of most weather radars requires a high degree of skill and effort on the part of the flight crew, often at times when pilot workload is at its highest," Collins says. "Even more, interpreting radar returns can be a complex and often confusing activity."

WXR-2100 has found favor by minimizing training and workload requirements, and through its ability to present hazards without the flight crew's having to interpret the radar display, Piller said.
Collins has won an impressive 80% of the avionics competitions it has entered when the WXR-2100 multiscan radar is part of the package, he added.

By John Morris