AI Employed To Prevent Incursions
Universal Avionics has developed a ground environment sensor system that provides enhanced guidance for pilots at airports and can warn them if they are headed for an incursion, even if they’re following ATC instructions. The system uses artificial intelligence to meld voice recognition of individual ATC controllers with instantaneous transcription of their instructions to create a “magenta line” to a crew’s runway or gate. If the controller messes up, a flashing red hand warns the pilots of potential impending doom. Universal CEO Dror Yahav said the system will give flight crews the information, both graphic and voice, to avoid the kind of incursions that have made headlines in the last year.
Wheels Up Buying 100 Jets
On demand/membership charter Wheels Up secured $332 million to fund a three-year expansion and modernization program its CEO George Mattson says will put it on firm footing. The company, which started with King Airs and Beechjets in 2013, grew meteorically to become one of the largest charter operations in the world, but shortly after going public in 2021 it almost folded. A consortium led by Delta Airlines, a major investor, bailed the company out with a $500 million package that kept it alive until a reorganization could be launched. The company’s Beech/Hawker and Cessna Citation Xs will be replaced by used Embraer Phenom 300s and Bombardier Challenger 300s respectively and the King Air fleet will be retained.
