A REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF THE MCDONNELL DOUGLAS COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM. PHASE II

The study represents the second phase of IDA's evaluation of the Collision Avoidance System (CAS) development by the McDonnell Douglas Electronics Company (MDEC). The MDEC CAS is an air-derived synchronous system based on time/frequency multiplexing techniques - synchronization timing is disseminated by ground stations and by air-to-air relay among appropriately equipped aircraft. Range-rate measurement accuracies were re-examined because of the design changes, i.e., replacement of doppler measurements with range difference measurements. Synchronization was addressed in some detail to complement the Phase I study. In particular, the limitations imposed by transmitter power, antenna nulls/fades, and receiver sensitivity were analyzed in the context of the air-to-air synchronization relay links. Ultimately, the analysis led to the question: 'What happens when there is no synchronization and the asynchronous Back-Up Mode (BUM) will have to be invoked'. For this reason, a portion of the study was devoted to the analysis of the BUM.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • See also Phase 1, AD-021 678.
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute for Defense Analyses

  400 Army Navy Drive
  Arlington, VA  United States  22202

  Federal Aviation Administration

  Systems R&D Service, 800 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington, DC  United States 

  Department of Defense

  Advanced Research Projects Agency
  Arlington, VA  United States  22209
• Authors:
  • Krinitz, A
• Publication Date: 1975-10

Media Info

• Pagination: 88 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air traffic control; Aviation safety; Avionics; Crash avoidance systems; Errors; Fail safe systems; Rates; Systems engineering; Threats; Time; Time division multiplexing; Traffic signal control systems; Vehicle range
• Uncontrolled Terms: Backup systems; Synchronization
• Old TRIS Terms: Range distance; Synchronism; Threat evaluation
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Operations and Traffic Management; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00094468
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: FAA-RD-75-143-2 Final Rpt., S-458
• Contract Numbers: DAHC15-73-C-0200
• Files: NTIS, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 21 1976 12:00AM