LANDING APPROACH SURVEILLANCE AND WARNING
LASAW: Safety Technology for Helipad and Airport Operators
Advance warning and proximity alerts for mistaken, unscheduled or emergency incoming aircraft. AI interprets landing intentions to give your ground crew a few crucial minutes - or hours - to respond.
LASAW for Fixed-Wing & Aerodromes
LASAW for Rotary-Wing & Helipads
LASAW - always on, always aware, always vigilant
The acronym LASAW stands for “Landing Approach Surveillance And Warning”. A combined hardware-software solution, the system uses a small on-the-ground receiver to pick up all aircraft flight behaviours within range. This data is then fed to an ingenious AI that detects which blips display certain characteristics indicating it’s preparing to land or will stray into restricted airspace. When LASAW finds one of these blips, it triggers the alert protocol you choose.
Powered by an implementation of SkyNet REACH®, LASAW Includes:
Sophisticated Landing Surveillance Technology
Monitoring up to 500 aircraft
Detection range up to 260 nautical miles (480km)
AI-enabled hardware-software solution
Automated triggering of sirens, strobe lights
Automatic landing logs, including aircraft details
Aircraft approach awareness … Automatically
Whether you control an airport, airstrip, airfield or helipad, you never want an aircraft to touchdown without your ground crew knowing in advance. However, landing area incursion incidents – where an incoming plane or helicopter risks collision with personnel, equipment, service vehicles or wildlife – are nearly a routine occurrence.
Classic examples are helicopter crews approaching the wrong platform in a cluster of oil/gas rigs or a bush pilot/air taxi making an unscheduled airstrip landing. You don’t hear about these incidents much as they’re often swept under the rug by embarrassed pilots or ops staff. However, everyone knows it’s going on.
In one of the only publicly available studies on the issue, the UK Civil Aviation Authority estimated that within its jurisdiction there were likely 180 unreported incidents in a 10-year sample period. Meanwhile, emergency medical teams face a related issue for their helidecks. They need an effective, reliable and simple solution to continually update them when an expected air ambulance is en route, with live updates of its ETA.
LASAW, a world-first innovation from SkyNet Aviation, is a simple and ingenious system that answers both challenges.
LASAW is the only AI-enabled approach and warning solution available: A world-first developed inhouse by SkyNet Aviation
Landing Warnings
LASAW offers the highest level of early warning when planes or helicopters make unexpected approaches to aerodromes and helipads. LASAW is always watching to protect against potential incidents when an aircraft is preparing to land on a runway or helipad that is not clear.
Automatic at every step, LASAW:
- Detects aircraft in a landing configuration
- Tracks the aircraft making an approach
- Alerts your people on the ground to clear the way.
15 Minutes Out
Identify all airspace users within range of your aerodrome
5 Nautical Miles Out
Warning that an aircraft is making an unexpected approach
2.5 Minutes Out
Automatically triggered ground alerts to clear people, assets & wildlife out of the way
Landing Logs and Reporting
As a fully networked system, SkyNet REACH LASAW also provides landing data logging – extremely useful for billing, contract management and operations monitoring, especially at unmanned locations.
LASAW can also be networked for multiple locations, either close-by or on the other side of the globe. This allows central management of all your locations by a single operations department.
Records landing event and time
Records time on ground
Records aircraft registration, operator name, type, make & model
Long-Range Monitoring and Warning
SkyNet REACH LASAW is the only long-range monitoring application able to track up to 500 aircraft simultaneously in airspace out to maximum 260nm from the helipad or airport.
Using hardware at the helipad site or airport, the LASAW system monitors the sky continuously 24/7. Fully independent of other systems, it is always ready to deliver alerts.
Electronic outputs from the LASAW hardware can be connected to a range of warning systems, including (but not limited to): strobe lights, sirens and buzzers, bird scarers, automated two-way radio announcements, approach/runway lighting.
Using sophisticated technology, it detects the position of all air traffic in real-time and calculates a vector to project a forward position of every tail. When one enters a landing configuration, the system’s algorithm initiates a response policy based on:
Alignment with an approach to the helipad/runway
Appropriate rate of descent
Reduction of airspeed
Real-time ETA and status
LASAW is in keen demand with hospitals, air ambulances and search-and-rescue (SAR) organisations. When an aircraft has a high-priority patient incoming, the medical teams must be updated on its ETA at a glance – rather than the laborious process of raising the pilot on voice comms.
With its ability to automatically pick out and monitor an individual aircraft among hundreds, a LASAW implementation for a medical facility can be customised to raise custom alerts on long timescales.
For example, an SMS message broadcast can be triggered as soon as the aircraft enters a 250nm radius of the hospital. After that, countdown alerts can be raised as it crosses each preset proximity threshold and, finally, when it commences landing approach. Every extra increment of situational awareness gives doctors and nurses time to prepare for the best patient outcomes.
“As a rig or land-based safety system, LASAW means ground staff are proactively alerted when there is an aircraft arriving – even if it is not in communication with anyone on the ground.”
- Jon Davis, SkyNet Aviation CEO
mobile hardware or managed service
LASAW hardware comes in two options: LASAW Mobile, ideal for temporary or remote locations; and LASAW Enterprise, ideal for installation in a permanent server facility.
SkyNet LASAW Mobile
LASAW Mobile is a sealed and self-contained unit for use where a dedicated communications rack is not available. It is often used in unmanned locations or remote sites. Available as a 100% solar-powered installation, LASAW Mobile can even provide back-to-base monitoring (and other limited functionality) without an internet connection.
It offers:
- 3x dedicated signal output relays capable of 250 VDC and 7.5Amps switching
- Fully autonomous operation
- Low power consumption
- Simple installation and maintenance
Optional: Ethernet, 4G and WiFi communications conduits to enable full consul services to operations personnel or autonomous alert outputs.
SkyNet LASAW Enterprise
LASAW Enterprise is designed to be installed within a dedicated comms room or server. Wherever there is a dedicated communications rack space, our LASAW Enterprise’s Dell PowerEdge 1RU Rack Server will slot straight in.
Requiring virtually zero configuration after being installed and connected to the external aerial, LASAW Enterprise offers:
- Dual redundancy on CPU and power supply
- Up to 8x digital relay controlled I/Os
- Based on Dell 620 2RU rack mountable chassis
- Remote configuration and health monitoring QoS
- Fully autonomous operation when internet is unavailable.
Warning Automation you Can Trust
Keeping your equipment, people and landing zones safe.
