Aireon is an American company based in

McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population of the community was 50,773 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is ...

. Founded in 2011, it manufactures, deploys, and operates a global aircraft tracking and surveillance system utilizing satellite-based receivers to monitor the existing ADS-B transmissions of aircraft, for global air traffic surveillance.

History

Aireon was launched in 2011 as a joint venture between

satellite communications A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. ...

company Iridium Communications Inc,

Nav Canada Nav Canada (styled as NAV CANADA) is a privately run, non-profit corporation that owns and operates Canada's civil air navigation system (ANS). It was established by statute in accordance with the ''Civil Air Navigation Services Commercializati ...

, NATS,

ENAV ENAV S.p.A. is an Italian government-controlled joint-stock company which operates as an exclusive supplier of civil air navigation services in the Italian airspace. As an air navigation service provider (ANSP) it is responsible for the provisio ...

, Naviair and the

Irish Aviation Authority The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) () is a commercial semi-state company in Ireland responsible for the regulation of safety aspects of air travel. Its head office is in The Times Building in Dublin. Background The authority regulates the safe ...

to work on a surveillance system to track aircraft around the globe, beyond the range of ground-based radar and ADS-B receivers, in real time. Nav Canada invested $150 million to acquire a 51% stake in the project. In September 2016, Aireon launched a partnership with

FlightAware FlightAware is an American multi-national technology company that provides real-time, historical, and predictive flight tracking data and products. it is the world's largest flight tracking platform, with a network of over 32,000 ADS-B gro ...

to provide space-based ADS-B to airlines and other aircraft operators with Qatar Airways as the launch customer. In January 2017, Aireon launched and deployed its first ADS-B payloads on Iridium Next satellites. Seven launches followed the first launch. The eighth and final launch in January 2019 completed the satellite 'constellation' and put the total in-orbit Aireon payloads at 75 (66 operational payloads and 9 spares). National ANSPs including Nav Canada, UK NATS, ENAV, IAA, AAI, Naviair, Isavia, CAAS of Singapore, ATNS of South Africa, DC-ANSP, ASECNA, Seychelles (SCAA), COCESNA Honduras and PNG of Papua New Guinea have signed a Data Services Agreement with Aireon.

Technology

ADS-B-equipped aircraft transmit short data packets containing identification, position and other information. The system was intended to be used with ground-based receivers. Through its receivers in space, Aireon monitors these transmissions, providing coverage where there is no ground infrastructure, relaying signals from all ADS-B equipped aircraft to controllers. Iridium Communications hosts the Aireon payloads on its constellation of Iridium NEXT low-orbiting communication satellites. Aireon's receiver data is also processed by

which has partnered with Aireon to provide data to airlines, other aircraft operators and the public. Aireon's ICAO designator is AEN.

References

External links

*{{cite news, url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/aireon-space-based-global-tracking-1.5080893, title=New real-time tracking system locates planes anywhere in the world, last=Hanomansing, first=Ian, publisher=

CBC News CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...

, date=2 April 2019, access-date=3 April 2019 Companies based in McLean, Virginia