Pilots and controllers now rely in large part on spotty radio communications. Officials plan to award a contract to build the ADS-B system, which also will serve high-altitude commercial flights, this year.
"We want to establish what will be like an HOV lane for anybody that is equipped," said Robert Novia, an FAA manager in Houston who is working on the gulf project. "They wouldn't have to be with the rest of the airplanes and incur the kinds of delays and altitude restrictions that everyone else does."
Aircraft at cruise altitudes over the gulf now must be separated by scores of miles because there is no radar coverage to tell controllers where they are.
UPS, the carrier that is trying out the technology in Louisville, is pressing the FAA and legislators to move more quickly to deploy ADS-B nationwide.
"In Kentucky we have a saying 'I'm sitting on the front porch and fixing to do something.' At some point you have to stop fixing and go to the mall," said Capt. Karen Lee, director of flight operations at UPS Airlines.
"Implementation is only a political problem," she added. "The technology is ready to go; we have to get past the resistance to change."
jennifer.oldham@latimes.com
