The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is reporting on a recent FAA Advisory Circular (AC) that refers to a new generation of collision avoidance technology. The AC, itself, “provides an acceptable means to address operational use of collision avoidance systems (CAS), including ACAS and traffic alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS).”
From what I’ve read, left/right/straight steering commands were planned to be added to the TCAS specifications. But the directional antennas currently used aren’t accurate enough to determine the direction to a target.
With ADS-B out, every airplane is transmitting its exact position, so steering commands become trivial to implement. But that would require ADS-B in. Does anyone know if any airlines have it installed?
Yes. The original TCAS-I would have been awareness-only. Then TCAS-II would provide vertical avoidance commands (this is what we have today). Ultimately TCAS-III would have provided both vertical and lateral avoidance commands. But guess what? As long as you miss vertically … you miss. Lateral commands aren’t needed, and vertical avoidance is the easiest to achieve (because airplanes are generally longer and wider than they are tall).