Musings and observations from the uAvionix team.
uAvionix accelerates delivery of its FlightLine surface situational awareness system at 6 additional major U.S. airports across Florida.
Christian Ramsey, uAvionix Chief Commercial Officer “Radio frequency spectrum is among our Nation’s most important national resources.” With those opening words published on Nov 13, 2023 in the Modernizing United States Spectrum Policy and Establishing a National Spectrum Strategy, the President of the United States set in motion the most recent, and most influential act to-date [...]
In recent years, the use of drones in emergency response has revolutionized the way first responders handle critical situations. Among the cutting-edge technologies enabling this transformation is uAvionix’s Casia G. As a key component of Drone as a First Responder (DFR) programs, Casia G detects aircraft flying around drone operations, allowing potential collisions to be [...]
In February 2023, uAvionix began testing the first versions of Starlink's antennas and connectivity, exploring the possibilities for advanced LEO-satellite-based command and control (C2) communications for small UAS. The Starlink results were encouraging, and we have continued our efforts throughout this past year. As a leading provider of Command, Navigation, and Surveillance technologies for small [...]
In January of 2024, Canada’s National Research Center (NRC) published this report titled “Transport Canada Airborne Detect and Avoid Flight Trials 2022/2023.” The report documents a flight test regime and results comparing the uAvionix Casia X system to two different onboard radar solutions for DAA. The Casia X system by uAvionix stands out as a [...]
In consultation with uAvionix, the FAA has just released a SAFO (Safety Alert for Operators) regarding the pairing of Mode S transponders with skyBeacon and tailBeacon. Although the SAFO is short and to the point, and impacts less than 1% of installed skyBeacon and tailBeacons, it merits explanation as to why it exists. It is [...]
Ryan Braun - uAvionix Managing Director, Crewed Aviation As a technology enthusiast and consummate early adopter, it grates on me how quickly things become outdated, outmoded, and incompatible. Some of these challenges are a result of the march of progress. I get that HDTV and digital video connections are far superior to old analog TV [...]
The Right of Way Discussion Hey FAA, AOPA, NAAA, HAI, and Drone Industry at Large… We have to talk about this. Last year when the BVLOS ARC came out with its recommendations, one of them created what I can only call a sh*t-storm of controversy. It all has to do with expanded use of ADS-B [...]
State-of-the-art training, research, and testing facility will address the transportation safety and operational needs of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic Region PITTSBURGH (September 15, 2023) – Michael Baker International, a global leader in engineering, planning and consulting services, announced today that the firm has been selected as the program manager for the Pennsylvania Safety Transportation and Research [...]
Christian Ramsey, Managing Director uAvionix Corporation As the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) continues to increase, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has introduced the UAS Remote Identification (RID) Rule to ensure airspace safety and security. This rule, which goes into effect in September 2023, requires that UAS comply to facilitate their identification and tracking. [...]
Christian Ramsey, Managing Director Aviation Networks This week, the FAA announced it has awarded more than $100M to 12 airports across the country to reduce runway incursions. Funding ranges from $223K to the single runway Waverly Municipal Airport (C25) to $6M to Miami International Airport (MIA). The announcement comes at an interesting time for two [...]
Lots of news lately with high altitude spy balloons, unidentified “objects”, and air-to-air “kills” (does it count as a kill if it isn’t crewed?) What is being revealed is something that is not well known to the public – there’s more up there than you think. The truth is, it isn’t very expensive or hard [...]
For decades commercial aviation has relied on highly regulated technology to enhance safety. Airlines and Business Aviation largely rely on certified avionics and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) have long relied on certified IT systems layered on certified surveillance systems to safely separate traffic. These technologies are in continuous development, albeit subject to the most [...]
Airfield snow removal teams leap to action when others seek shelter, facing a no-fail mission to prepare the runway surface for pilots dealing with the chaos of deteriorating weather. This chaos amplifies runway safety hazards, and too often leads to near-catastrophic encounters. Two recent examples demonstrate the extreme runway safety hazard encountered in the [...]
Earlier this year uAvionix’s RT-2087/ZPX-B Micro IFF Transponder (ZPX-B) became the world’s smallest and lightest AIMS-certified Mode 5 transponder, creating new equipage opportunities for vertical-lift aircraft, where weight savings translate to longer flight duration or heavier payload. Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) especially benefit because size and weight traditionally have been deal-breakers for Mode [...]
There is more to your GPS than its accuracy statistic We know all about GPS, right? They tell us to turn left or right, give us an ETA to home or work, share our location with friends on our mobile devices, and allow us to precisely track our rides, runs, flights, hikes, floats, drives…. [...]
Back in 2018 – we published a white paper titled “Inert and Alert: Intelligent ADS-B for UAS NAS Integration: Concept of Operations.” In it, we described a concept for a way to leverage the undeniable safety benefits of ADS-B for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) without “overwhelming the spectrum” as is oft-repeated when the topic [...]
The Cloud in the Clouds On a chilly morning in April 2021 on a country road in North Dakota – a group of engineers, pilots, and observers from the Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NP UAS TS) gathered outside of the uAvionix Ground Control Station (GCS) van and watched a matte gray Vertical Take-Off and [...]
To many, radio frequency (RF) concepts are black-box magic. We live in a world where “wireless” technologies are taken for granted – mobile phones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth – we can even pay for stuff by waving our credit card over a magic symbol at the check-out counter. It just works, and we don’t even think about [...]
Why Diversity Matters A typical transponder and ADS-B system for General Aviation (GA) uses a single, bottom-mounted antenna, which provides the best line of sight to ADS-B receivers and secondary surveillance radar (SSR) systems on the ground. However, there is a growing use of space-based ADS-B receivers around the world, which poses a problem [...]