Re:F-35 radar system has bug that requires hard reboot in fl...
by theoh on Thursday March 10, 2016 @06:37PM
(#11263447)
I think the image a lot of us have is that an atomic clock is a PC-to-dishwasher-sized box. Rubidium standards are smaller than that but less accurate than the lab grade equipment.
As I understand it, an early variant of the TCAS system for collision avoidance did just that. Every aircraft would have a Cs or Rb standard that was synchronized to a master clock, and they'd broadcast their position and altitude at an assigned time slot.
This would have been very expensive at the time (late 60s-early 70s?) they were proposing it, and it would only have worked if everyone had the necessary equipment. So it didn't fly. But in later decades it was no big deal to put a high-quality atomic time/frequency standard onboard an aircraft, and I wouldn't be surprised if most large airplanes actually do carry a Rb standard for one reason or another.
Edit: the proposed system was called EROS: http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/tcas.htm