Page 23 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2017 Online Magazine

FEATURE REMOTE TOWER

maintaining safety and efficiency, Remote connected to an RTC,” Landin of Saab says. However, he avers that it is difficult to
Tower enables more effective staffing for Saab has been conducting contingency gauge ANSPs’ actual interest level, as many
aerodrome control service and heavily trials within the Single European Sky ATM don’t want to be too far out front with the
reduces the costs related to building brick Research (SESAR) programme framework technology. “There’s a lot of interests and
and mortar control towers. at Landvetter Airport, the second largest requests for proposals from ANSPs and
In April 2015, the system was declared airport in Sweden. we’re counting on it picking up,” he adds.
operational in Sweden, and on June 29 2016 “Unplanned events such as systems Meanwhile, the United States Federal
a contract was signed with Swedish civil failure, fire or threat to the tower building Aviation Administration (FAA) controllers
aviation authority LFV to establish the new can heavily reduce the capacity of the are evaluating the system for general and
company Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions. airport or force it to close, which would have business aviation aircraft operating in Class
“We expect that the certification in Sweden severe effects on the air traffic in the region. D (controlled) airspace. Late last year, FAA
should roll out to other nations, and 75 per The trials showed that investment in Saab floated a tender seeking bids to build a
cent to 80 per cent of this is applicable to Remote Tower technology is a cost-efficient remote air traffic control tower at Northern
other operators,” Landin says. The Saab contingency alternative. In addition, it Colorado Regional Airport (FNL), a business
Remote Tower system is an integrated supports a high traffic capacity by providing and general aviation facility about 50 miles
package of subsystems which facilitates the controllers with a high quality live video north of Denver. In a request for information
the provision of a range of conventional feed of the maneuvering area and aerodrome issued Nov. 23, the FAA says its near-term
ATS. High definition images and all relevant in the vicinity of the airport,” he claims. goal is to develop a qualified-vendors list
airport systems are transferred via a data Saab says to maximize the efficient use that other airports can use to “potentially
network to an integrated controller working of the tower controllers, ANSPs can group purchase a more economical alternative to
position at the RTC that best suits the airports depending on their traffic pattern implementing tower services as compared
customer’s business model. A comprehensive throughout the year, week or even day. The to traditional brick-and-mortar towers.” The
suite of image enhancement tools and state- traffic demand at certain aerodromes might plan appears to be similar to the remote-
of- the art video compression provides be such that it enables RTC controllers to tower demonstration project being run by
optimal image resolution whilst minimising operate a maximum of three aerodromes Saab at Leesburg.
bandwidth usage. “With the use of Saab simultaneously.
Remote Tower solution as a fallback for “Thus, several movements at multiple
medium to large airports, users are able to aerodromes might be executed in parallel.
maintain high capacity traffic throughput Airport owners should not be concerned
in emergency situations or even planned about different traffic types, i.e. commercial, Remote Tower technology enables
maintenance of the ordinary tower. It is business, VFR, IFR, flying training schools high traffic capacity by providing
high quality live video feed of
also possible to have a cluster of airports or military. They all benefit equally from the the manoeuvring area and the
with a Remote Tower Contingency Solution Remote Tower solution,” Landin says. aerodrome near the airport
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