Boeing’s [BA] Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Connexion by Boeing units last week successfully demonstrated a number of enhancements to the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS). The enhancements are intended to improve the capacity, efficiency, safety and security of the air traffic control and management system by providing pilots and ground-based controllers with real-time “situational awareness” of the flying environment using satellites and other communications and navigation technology, company officials said.

The demonstrations were completed during a test flight from Seattle conducted as part of ATM’s Global Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance System (GCNSS) contract with the Federal Aviation Administration. All of the transmissions were accomplished using broadband and narrowband satellite links to demonstrate the feasibility of moving voice, video and other data between systems on the ground and systems aboard aircraft in oceanic airspace and other remote environments, company officials said. The demonstration flight was conducted aboard Connexion One, a specially equipped 737 aircraft.

–Paul Dykewicz

(Tim Neale, Boeing, 703.584.2700)