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| Rendering of Aireon satellites above earth. Photo: Aireon |
[Avionics Today 05-25-2016] Aireon has announced the successful completion of a service delivery point Factory Acceptance Test with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), Ireland’s Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP). The test confirmed that the IAA’s service delivery equipment, a critical component for receiving global air traffic surveillance data, is performing up to standards. This is the first major step toward deploying space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) in Irish airspace, in addition to implementing Aireon Aircraft Locating and Emergency Response Tracking (ALERT) service, Aireon’s free global emergency-tracking service hosted and operated by the IAA.
The Factory Acceptance Test verified the system functionality and assembly. It also measured the associated hardware design elements. According to a statement released by Aireon, completing this first milestone clears the path for the additional steps needed to integrate space-based ADS-B data into an operational setting and provide Aireon ALERT to the aviation stakeholders, including ANSPs, airlines, regulators and search and rescue organizations. Aireon and the IAA are working toward additional milestones over the next 18 months, including Site Acceptance Testing, which will verify the system functionality, and Implementation Service Acceptance Testing to verify the accuracy of the data.