Turbulence is the leading cause of injuries in the aviation
industry today. In addition to the human costs, airlines have
numerous unplanned operational and maintenance costs associated with
turbulence encounters. 
To help mitigate these problems and costs, AeroTech has
developed, with NASA support, a system to automate the current
methods of manual (or aural) turbulence pilot reports (PIREPs) that
will increase both pilot and ground controller situational awareness
of the location and severtity of turbulence hazards.
A large contributing factor to the injuries and unplanned costs
caused by turbulence encounters is that pilots (commercial,
corporate, and private), dispatchers, and controllers do not have
sufficient situational awareness of the location and severity of potential turbulence hazards to
their aircraft.
AeroTech's Turbulence Auto-PIREP System (TAPSSM) is an autonomous
system that provides objective reports of aircraft turbulence
encounters in an effort to improve pilots' and dispatchers' situational awareness of
potential turbulence hazards without increasing crew workload.
Reports are generated during a turbulence encounter and broadcast to
a ground station. These reports could represent an automated
electronic pilot report (PIREP) providing important information
about the turbulence encounter for either Airline Flight Safety and
Operations Centers and/or Air Traffic Control (ATC) personnel to
make strategic or tactical decisions.
TAPSSM Today
Under the NASA Turbulence Prediction and Warning System ( TPAWS )
program, AeroTech’s TAPSSM reporting code has been installed on 123 Delta
Air Lines aircraft (B-737-800, B-767-300ER, and B-767-400ER) and
have been broadcasting turbulence reports while the Delta aircraft
are flown in revenue service. The reports have
been made from throughout the continental United States, Alaska,
Hawaii, Canada, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, India, and the
North Atlantic. Today TAPSSM is flying on 60 Frontier
Airlines A318 and A319 aircraft.
Please click on the links at the top of the page to find out more
on TAPSSM and how it can reduce injuries and unplanned costs in your
organization.
View
"Turbulence Auto-PIREP System: An Overview" (1.4 MB .PDF)
View "Using Airborne
Turbulence Detection & Reporting Technologies to Increase
Airspace Utilization" (1.41 MB .PDF).
