Anticipating that Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) will become a fundamental component of the air traffic landscape of the near future, Garmin International (Booth 1222) recently revealed that its GDL 90 has received a Supplemental Type Certificate from the FAA and a Grant of Equipment Authorization from the Federal Communications Commission. These milestones make the GDL 90 the first TSO C154 Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) certified to support a broad array of ADS-B broadband services.
ADS-B is an enabling technology for the FAA vision of Free Flight. With the completion of the UPSAT acquisition in August 2003, Garmin stepped into a leadership role with the FAA's Capstone program, a collaboration of government, academia and industry that has been developing and evaluating ADS-B technology in Alaska since 1997.
The FAA is beginning to implement ADS-B technology in selected areas over the next 18 months through its Safe Flight 21 program. It expects to install more than 30 ground stations along the East Coast and additional stations in Arizona to improve traffic situational awareness among the large number of aircraft operations associated with the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University's flight training programs in Daytona Beach, FL, and Prescott, AZ. The FAA also plans to install stations along the Gulf of Mexico to bring long-anticipated ATC services in that region for applications such as rotorcraft landing on oil platforms, and in Alaska to continue its expansion of the ADS-B system throughout much of the state.
The ground stations can track aircraft movement and will eventually be used to provide radar-like traffic separation services. Additionally, they will broadcast graphical and textual weather information via the FAA's Flight Information Service (FIS-B), traffic targets being tracked by ATC via the FAA's Traffic Information Service (TIS-B), and graphical TFR information in real time. The federal government currently plans to offer all of these services free of charge to General Aviation and commercial operators.
Additional ADS-B benefits expected to be developed over time include improvements in separation standards, airport surface navigation and tracking, and asset tracking for fleet operators.
Garmin's GDL 90 transceiver provides GA with the potential benefits of Free Flight applications, including broadcast real-time traffic, weather and eventually Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) data. It is designed as a remote-mounted unit and will transfer information to Garmin's MX20 multifunction display. The transceiver includes a TSO-C145a WAAS GPS sensor. The broadband datalink operates on 978 MHz and is based on the UAT technology developed by the MITRE Corporation for the FAA. The link is capable of data transmission rates in excess of one megabit per second, providing the bandwidth to transfer large graphical weather files, TFRs, and traffic in real time.
The GDL 90 is now available at a suggested retail price of $7,995. It includes top- and bottom-mount datalink antennae, a WAAS GPS antenna and an installation kit.
