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.... -- A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433