Re: FAA to require transponders on all aircraft passengers

[David Lesher <wb8foz@nrk.com>]

> 
> According to KCBS, a local radio station, the FAA has closed a long
> anticipated deal with a manufacturer of transponder devices. The goal of
> the system to be deployed nationwide is to match aircraft passengers to
> their luggage and thereby identify unaccompanied luggage on board an
> aircraft.

I thinks they have mixed their marbles....

The FAA is trialing (at the Olympics & Oshkosh) a GPS
rx/transponder; piped into a moving map.

The reason is their existing long-range radar (called ARSR --
Air Route surveillance Radar) is very long in the tooth, & they
have no hope of getting money to replace it. (Their recent 50
mile system procument, the ASR-9, looked like the worst of the
Sgt. York & the V-22...)

Note they spend $3-400E6 annually on radar maint. alone. [I
suspect they have to buy their vacuum tubes from St. Petersburgh,
the last source of them...]

The GPS scheme could replace:
	Primary Radar
	VOR [en route nav. -- lots of ground transmitters {?200?}
	scattered around country]
	ILS [instrument landing system]

It's the only rational thing I've seen the FAA pursue, vice be
forced into, in 20 years....

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