Commercial satellite imagery and 3-D mapping software help reduce the dangers to aircraft posed by birds and other hazards.

When US Airways Flight 1549 splashed down in the Hudson River on February 15, the story made headlines worldwide. Fortunately, all passengers and crew survived the crash, believed to have been caused by a flock of birds that disabled both of the jetliner’s engines. The incident brought public attention to a problem all too familiar to both commercial and military pilots. On the positive side, however, geospatial technology is emerging as a major tool for reducing such risks.

As featured in the April 2009 issue of Military Geospatial Technology.

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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) awarded GeoEye a $3.7 million contract in June to complete the 3-D mapping project, which involves the creation of airport mapping databases for 365 airports by June 2007. NGA and other international standards organizations define the database specifications for airport authorities. GeoEye will combine the 3-D capability of its IKONOS^® and OrbView-3 stereo imagery with BAE Systems’ SOCET SET and ClearFlite software to create the detailed maps.

An airport mapping database is a geospatial database that contains features – such as runways, taxiways, terrain, buildings, and obstacles – near an airfield. Operators use the information to develop safe, direct flight patterns that save time and fuel and increase the number of flights per hour. Training organizations use the databases to familiarize pilots with hazards before they fly over an area for the first time.

“The project is about getting aircraft into and out of airports safely,” said Dejan Damjanovic, program manager for GeoEye. “The databases will help NGA scout the safest paths and allow companies to build simulators to familiarize pilots with hazards. ClearFlite supports that need by providing precise measurements derived from photographs, rather than data collected from manual surveys.”

BAE Systems’ SOCET SET geospatial analysis software is used to create digital elevation models, while ClearFlite, a SOCET SET module, extracts the information from stereo images required to build the mapping databases. “ClearFlite creates the 3-D obstruction identification surface model automatically, conserving time and allowing analysts to operate in real-time stereo mode to identify obstructions with a high degree of accuracy,” said Curt Lima, BAE Systems program manager for ClearFlite.

The current project is the largest of three airport mapping database awards GeoEye has received from the NGA since 1999 for large-scale mapping projects using IKONOS stereo imagery in parallel with SOCET SET and ClearFlite software.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is the premier trans-Atlantic defense and aerospace company, delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. BAE Systems, with more than 100,000 employees worldwide, had 2005 sales that exceeded $28 billion.

For more information, please contact:

Keith Lewis, BAE Systems
Tel: 858-675-5965 Cell: 858-472-6958
keith.p.lewis@baesystems.com

Susan Lenover, BAE Systems
Tel: 703-907-8259 Cell: 703-850-1621
susan.lenover@baesystems.com

www.baesystems.com/gxp

Six awards are presented each year at ATC Maastricht, an annual conference for the air traffic control and management industry, to recognize contributions to air traffic management safety and capacity. BAE Systems’ ClearFlite software was nominated for the award by David Rider of Jane’s Airport Review.

ClearFlite is a digital mapping tool developed for the aviation industry to help operators identify and collect vertical obstructions in and around airfields. Available in BAE Systems’ SOCET SET® software package, ClearFlite uses images acquired from aircraft or satellites along with other SOCET SET functionality to help operators define obstructions more efficiently, with a higher degree of accuracy.

“We have used ClearFlite for many years in all of our DoD and commercial airport mapping programs,” said Dejan Damjanovic, program manager for GeoEye™, the world’s largest commercial remote sensing company. “For a single solution that supports mapping of terrain, obstacles, and airport features, nothing beats ClearFlite.”

BAE Systems developed ClearFlite in response to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Ron Brown Airfield Initiative, created after a fatal plane crash in 1996 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which killed U.S. Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown and 33 other passengers and crew. The accident was attributed to poor weather conditions, a lack of knowledge of the airfield environment, and an off-course approach.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is the premier transatlantic defense and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With more than 100,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems sales exceeded GBP £15.4 billion (U.S. $28 billion) in 2005.

For further information, please contact:

Ed Langmaid, BAE Systems
Tel: 858-675-5995 Cell: 858-449-5520
ed.langmaid@baesystems.com
www.na.baesystems.com

Six awards are presented each year at ATC Maastricht, an annual conference for the air traffic control and management industry, to recognize contributions to air traffic management safety and capacity. BAE Systems’ ClearFlite software was nominated for the award by David Rider of Jane’s Airport Review.

ClearFlite is a digital mapping tool developed for the aviation industry to help operators identify and collect vertical obstructions in and around airfields. Available in BAE Systems’ SOCET SET® software package, ClearFlite uses images acquired from aircraft or satellites along with other SOCET SET functionality to help operators define obstructions more efficiently, with a higher degree of accuracy.

“We have used ClearFlite for many years in all of our DoD and commercial airport mapping programs,” said Dejan Damjanovic, program manager for GeoEye®, the world’s largest commercial remote sensing company. “For a single solution that supports mapping of terrain, obstacles, and airport features, nothing beats ClearFlite.”

BAE Systems developed ClearFlite in response to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Ron Brown Airfield Initiative, created after a fatal plane crash in 1996 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which killed U.S. Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown and 33 other passengers and crew. The accident was attributed to poor weather conditions, a lack of knowledge of the airfield environment, and an off-course approach.

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