Outside the software engineering teams conducting research and development of ACAS X — i.e., airborne collision avoidance system X — aircraft operators, pilots and other stakeholders seem most interested in its safety enhancements and user interface, one team member says. Details will continue to be refined by an RTCA special committee, EUROCAE working group and others1 until the final approval of a minimum operational performance standard, anticipated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018.
Michael Castle, a systems engineer at Aurora Sciences and a contracted subject matter expert for the FAA, describes ACAS X essentially as the agency’s “solution going forward for how we are going to conduct collision avoidance.” His overview of the nine-year project was part of the Airborne Conflict Safety Forum held on June 10–11 in Brussels, Belgium (ASW, 9/14). At …
