As noted in our Aero-TV coverage from Oshkosh 2007 (see video attached below), FAA administrator Marion Blakey mandated that ADS-B will be the industry standard for traffic awareness by 2020.

This may sound like it's a long ways off, but PCAvionics, publisher of MountainScope moving-map software, has been working with the FAA Capstone program since 2003 to develop display systems for ADS-B. Mountainscope has been ADS-B compatible for four years, overlaying traffic and weather on MountainScope's industry-leading terrain awareness maps.

Partnering with ADS-B Technologies (www.ads-b.com), PCAvionics has supplied over 120 ADS-B cockpit display tablets to flight schools in China. Since program inception, these schools have logged over 250,000 hours with ADS-B, 100,000 of which were logged using MountainScope displays. Several other countries are in the process of setting up similar systems. This makes MountainScope the proven leader in portable ADS-B cockpit displays worldwide.

PCAvionics tells ANN that it continues to advance its ADS-B mapping technology by working with ADS-B Technologies and the North Carolina DOT to refine and enhance the display. NCDOT started a program to install ADS-B ground stations that has since spread to cover the entire US east coast. That makes ADS-B a current, viable solution for traffic and weather in that part of the country.

The FAA has committed to completing a nationwide ADS-B infrastructure by 2010, with aircraft equipage required by 2020.

FMI: www.pcavionics.com; www.whyadsb.com