Flight Safety Technology Says Its New System Can Help Avoid
Wake Turbulence
by Aero-News Senior Editor Pete Combs
It happened to me on a short hop
from Oklahoma City to Tulsa. I had just ferried an aircraft broker
(who will, for obvious reasons, remain nameless) in my Grumman
AA5-B to an airport in OKC so he could pick up a twin Cessna. On
the way back, he thought it would be real funny to buzz my little
single-engine aircraft with his much heavier C402. The wake
turbulence almost killed me and my passenger.
It was as if the hand of God had grabbed my left wing and pushed
DOWN. I later learned it would have been smarter to roll the Tiger
than fight the vortex formed by the close-passing Cessna's wings. I
have to admit, there was a period of about ten seconds when I
thought I was going to lose it right there over the Turner
Turnpike.
Wake vortices are blamed for dozens of accidents involving both
general aviation and commercial aircraft. One of the most notable
aircraft tragedies in recent years -- American Airlines Flight 587
that went down over Queens, NY, four years ago -- was partially
caused by the wake turbulence of a nearby Boeing 747. But if
William Cotton has anything to do with it, wake turbulence mishaps
on the runway could soon become a thing of the past.
Cotton is head of Flight Safety
Technology. In Denver, Friday, he demonstrated his "laser listening
system," Socrates, now being tested at Denver International
Airport.
The system "hears" a vortex, painting it as a brilliant burst of
light on the computer screen. As time passes, the vortices drift
away from the runway, carried by the wind and slowly dissipating as
they move along.
But because they're invisible and because so little is known
about them, the standard interval for wake turbulence avoidance on
take-off is two minutes. Cotton figures his system could
dramatically shorten that interval to just a few seconds under the
right conditions.
Cotton says it would cost about $10 million to install his
equipment at an airport. But at fields like DFW, he says the
equipment could allow a six-percent increase in the number of
runway operations every day. That, he says, is real money over the
long haul.
NASA calls the technology "promising."
Thinking back to that wildman aircraft broker who buzzed me in
the C402, I'm wondering now if Cotton might come up with a butthead
avoidance system. We'll get back to you on that...