If asked today for their views about automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), many pilots might respond that it was developed to meet the unique needs of single-engine commercial operators in remote areas such as Alaska, where only minimal ATC services were available. Alternatively, it was aimed at helping freighter pilots best position themselves in inbound traffic streams during “rush hour” operations around freight hubs.
But fewer pilots would correctly identify ADS-B as a technology that the FAA plans to implement for virtually all aircraft, nationwide, by 2012. And also one that will eventually become the international standard, from general aviation to the major airlines. At the ICAO Air Navigation Conference in Montreal last September, the U.S. and all the world’s nations agreed to the international adoption of ADS-B as “the leading aviation safety means.”
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