FAA Advisory Circular Opens The Door For TCAS Upgrade
More sophisticated collision-avoidance software is on the horizon.
Now decades old, TCAS technology could be displaced with an upgrade. Credit: Wikipedia
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is reporting on a recent FAA Advisory Circular (AC) that refers to a new generation of collision avoidance technology. The AC, itself, “provides an acceptable means to address operational use of collision avoidance systems (CAS), including ACAS and traffic alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS).”
“ACAS” is the generic term used to refer to collision avoidance systems in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations as well as among the international community.
According to Richard Boll, chair of the NBAA Domestic Operations Committee, Airspace and Flight Technologies Subcommittee, the FAA AC introduces a new, upgraded collision-avoidance platform. “ACAS X is the next generation of software replacing TCAS,” he said. “ACAS X is more sophisticated than the TCAS systems we use now. The technology and algorithms currently used date back to the 1970s. This new system can evaluate threats and, through a Monte Carlo simulation, process hundreds of scenarios and determine the ‘least cost’ or lowest risk, most efficient option for collision avoidance.”
According to the NBAA statement, ACAS X is not mandatory at this time, but the association predicts that the technology will be introduced over the next few years.
