RATBOY
Is anyone working on this stuff?
The main people working on the integration of CDTI and ACAS are SafeFlight 21 - url above. Several different versions of an integrated display have been produced, and were trialed last month. The cargo airlines (UPS/AT especially) have developed a TCAS-like conflict avoidance algorithm (based on ACAS II Change 7) and incorporated it into the CDTI... so as 10W said in an earlier post, people within the industry are trying to save room. Whether anything else could be integrated (for instance, the CDTI control panel within the FMS) remains to be seen.
As for what the crew are going to do with the toys, it depends whether procedures have been already set down b4 implementation. One problem the industry has is 'technology exhibitionism'... perhaps they should look at whether its nice to have, or whether its essential? One thought going round at the mo is that the customers (airlines) should decide what technology is needed, then providers respond - that way procedures get defined early on.
10W
It seems to me that the biggest problem for developing new technologies is to prove the benefits to the operators (airlines)... if there is no clear discernible commercial benefit, they will be very slow to equip.
They are the customers, and so drive what is equipped. Interesting to note that RVSM and 8.33 KHz both have clear business benefits. ELT is more of a pure safety matter - no commercial benefit as such.
So call me a cynic!
[This message has been edited by RevStar (edited 08 November 2000).]