NTL Record

Title Deployment and evaluation of the Helicopter In-flight Tracking System (HITS)
Record ID 47167
Personal Name
Creator
Daskalakis, Anastasios; Martone, Patrick
Source 162p. in various pagings
Corporate Creator John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
Corporate
Contributor
Ames Research Center; United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Publisher Ames Research Center; United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Publication Date 20041231
Language English
Abstract The Gulf of Mexico airspace has two major operating regions: low altitude offshore (below 7,000 ft) and high altitude oceanic (above 18,000 ft). Both regions suffer significant inefficiencies due to the lack of continuous surveillance during Instrument Flight Rules operations. Provision of surveillance in the offshore region is hindered by its low-altitude nature, which makes coverage by conventional radars economically infeasible. Significant portions of the oceanic sectors are inaccessible to shore-based sensors, as they are beyond line-of-sight. Two emerging surveillance technologies were assessed that are relatively low cost and can be deployed on offshore platforms Wide Area Multilateration and Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast. Performance criteria were formulated using existing FAA specifications. Three configurations were developed and deployed representative of systems serving full-size and reduced-sized domestic terminal areas and an en-route/oceanic region. These configurations were evaluated during nine flight test periods using fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.
Rosap ID dot:9762
Rosap URL https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9762
TRT Terms Helicopters; Rotary wing aircraft; Airspace utilization; Offshore drilling platforms; Offshore platforms; Air traffic control; Radar air traffic control; Heliports; Deployment; Flight tests; Tracking systems
General Subjects Visual flight rules; Multilateration and automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast (ADS-B); Gulf of Mexico
Classification NTL - AVIATION - Air Traffic Control
Geographical
Coverage
Florida; Houston (Texas); Miami (Florida); Texas; Louisiana
Report Number NASA/TM-2004-213447
Availability Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference Center
Resource type Tech Report
URL https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/47000/47100/47167/NASATM2004213447.pdf
Format PDF
Database NTL Digital Repository