Bernoulli's Blog

UAV’s  Final Blog Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAV’s, have been around for quite some time. The first UAV was actually designed and employed before the Wright brothers made their first historic flight. Some of these first drones included aerial vehicles such as balloons, and small planes. I remember hearing a store about an engineer making a small, gas powered, drone that flew about a mile before it ran out of gas; this happened in the late 1800’s. As with much of the technological advancements in this world, war has motivated people to create and advance technology until it has reached a near science fiction level. Before we reached this level in evolution, scientists were still using the technology available to them to impress and wow and kill their advisories. During World War One, the United States military was creating pilotless vehicles that they would load up with explosives and send towards enemy territory to crash and inflict as much damage as possible (IWM Staff,...

1) Describe the fundamentals of our current ATC system vs. the proposed NextGen system. Include details. i.e. "Next Gen is satellite-based." is not enough detail. That current ATC is a series of fixed, ground based stations that guide and direct aircraft in controlled airspaces. They can also offer guidance to aircraft in uncontrolled airspaces. Most ATC bases are equipped with primary and secondary radar to enhance the controller’s situational awareness within their airspace. Most of the aircraft are equipped with transponder equipment that automatically communicates with the towers RADAR, sending info such as speed, altitude, and call sign.  NextGen is a system that was proposed in 2003. The thing about NextGen is that it isn’t just one thing, it’s a series of different radar, communication, and weather monitoring technology that would enhance the safety and operator’s experience in the NAS greatly. There are at least a dozen different types of technologies that wo...