Newsdesk — Commercial Aviation

Ambidji Secures Major Malaysian Contract

One of Australia’s leading aviation consultancy firms, the Ambidji Group, has secured a significant contract from the Malaysian Government to assist in the development of Kuala Lumpur’s new international airport, writes Julian Green. Forming a partnership with Malaysia Airbus’ newest family member, the 124 seat A319, flew for tand went without a glitch. The A319 is seven frames or 3.7m based Airspace Management Services, Ambidji will provide planning, design and implementation of the Air Traffic Management System for the new KL International Airport (KLIA). The company’s extensive international experience gained in Asia, the United States and Europe will be used to develop all ATC procedures associated with operations at the new airport, and together with Airspace Management Services will also be responsible for the implementation of communications systems, radars and radio navigational aids. A key role in the development by the joint venture will be the transfer of technology to Malaysian staff and major subcontractor, Telekom Malaysia. Staff of the Department of Civil Aviation and the airport authority itself will also be trained. David Miles, Managing Director of Ambidji, said, “The new KLIA is part of the Malaysian Government’s continuing development of the nation’s aviation infrastructure, and will see Kuala Lumpur become an increasingly important hub for the Asia Pacific region. “Using real time airspace models developed by The Preston Group, we will provide the Malaysian Government with an optimal system that will be flexible enough to cope with forecast increases in traffic.” Ambidji, a member of Austrade’s Airport Industries Association, has already worked on a number of projects in Malaysia including the design and implementation of radar surveillance at Langkawi.

Boeing Leads Gps Team

Boeing is leading an industry team to validate the use of GPS for Category I, II and III automatic landings. Flight testing of four global landing system (GLS) concepts is currently underway at NASA’s Wallops Island airfield in Virginia. Trial objectives are to demonstrate accuracy, high integrity, availability of satellite signal and continuity of function. Team members include Boeing, NASA Langley, Honeywell/Pelorus Navigation Systems, Rockwell Collins/Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Litton/Wilcox and Interstate Electronics/Airport Systems International. NASA has donated use of its 757, airfield and laser tracker, while Boeing is providing the aircraft integration and operations. All four GLS systems are installed and are being tested simultaneously on the 757, although only one is coupled to the autopilot for each approach. The others are linked to data recorders. This will provide the manufacturers with experience in interfacing GLS with an existing autopilot. The plan is to conduct between 200 and 250 landings with 50 to 75 for each system. In later bench tests, using a satellite simulator, the performance of each system will be evaluated under extreme conditions.