Emerging Technologies

Emerging Technologies

©2005 MIT Technology Review,

Technology Review, Inc. Distributed by

Tribune Media Services International

Of the numerous technologies now in development, MIT Technology Review has chosen several it thinks will make particularly big splashes. Advanced brings three of these technologies into sharper focus

1

Airborne networks

By David Talbot

The technology that underpins 2 air traffic control systems hasn’t changed much over the last 50 years. Planes still depend on elaborate groundbased radar 3 systems, plus thousands of people who watch blips on screens and issue verbal instructions for takeoffs, landings and course changes. The system is expensive, hard to scale up and prone 4 to delays when storms strike.

An entirely 5 different approach is possible. An Internet in the sky could let planes fly safely without ground controllers. Each plane could continually transmit its identity, precise location, speed and heading to other planes in the sky via an airborne network. Software would then take over, coordinating 6 the system by issuing instructions to pilots on how to stay separated, find the best routes, avoid bad weather and execute precise landings in poor visibility.

In the near term, such technology could save travelers time and might reduce fuel consumption. Long term, it could revolutionize air travel by enabling more planes to fill the sky without the addition of infrastructure 7 and staff. Vastly greater numbers of small planes could zip in and out of thousands of small airfields 8 (there are 5,400 in the U.S. alone), even airfields with no radar at all. “The biggest holdback to the number of airplanes that can be in the sky is that air traffic controllers areseparating aircraft by hand,” says Sally Johnson, an aerospace 9 engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center. “Until you get away from that paradigm 10, we are at the limits of what you can do.”

The U.S. Air Force is beginning to define the structure of an airborne network, and hopes to begin actively 11 developing and testing the network itself between 2008 and 2012. Airborne communication networks could change how we travel in the decades to come.

Vocabulary Focus

make a splash (idiom) to get a lot of public attention

underpin 1 (v) [7QndE5pin] to give support, strength or a basic structure to something

elaborate (adj) [i5lAbErEt] containing a lot of careful detail or many detailed 12 parts

prone to (v) tending to show a particular negative characteristic or suffer from a particular illness

infrastructure (n) [5infrE5strQktFE] the basic systems and services that an organization uses in order to work effectively

Specialized 13 Terms

blip (n) 雷达荧幕显示的物体光点 a small spot of light that appears on a radar screen

heading (n) 航向；前进的方向 the direction in which someone or something is going