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Alexandria, VA – November 7, 2006 – Rannoch Corporation has been awarded three patents covering important aspects of aircraft tracking applications for military, commercial, and air traffic control solutions. These patents consist of state-of-the-art techniques for aircraft identification, tracking, and terrain alerting and warning. The patents include an advanced form of minimum safe altitude warning, based on automated tracking of an aircraft’s flight path and assessment of proximity to terrain. In particular, the patented system solutions contain an automated ground-based system to warn a pilot when the aircraft approaches a minimum safe altitude. Unlike today’s conventional avionic systems, the Rannoch solution does not require all aircraft to be equipped with specialized avionics equipment in order to gain safety benefits.

Over the past several years, Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT) has become one of the leading causes of aviation accidents. CFIT results from situations where a pilot lacks situational awareness due to various factors, and the aircraft is flown, under pilot control, into terrain. CFIT can occur in a number of circumstances, for example, during instrument approaches, if the aircraft descends below the target flight path, the aircraft may collide with terrain or other obstructions. However, many CFIT accidents also occur in clear weather due to pilot distraction or unfamiliarity with a particular airport.

The risk of such accidents can be greatly reduced through the installation of specialized CFIT avionics, which warn the flight crew; however, such avionics are cost-prohibitive for installations on smaller aircraft, including typical general aviation aircraft. As a result, today, most general aviation aircraft do not have CFIT avionics. While there are CFIT systems available on the market, they all rely upon the aircraft being equipped with devices known as ground proximity warning systems. Ground proximity warning systems generally rely on the combination of an on-board terrain database, an accurate navigation system, and logic to estimate potential collisions with the ground or terrain. However, if the on-board database is not current, then a proper proximity warning may not be given. Thus, for example, if a tower of building is recently constructed near an airport, and the database on the plane is not updated to reflect this new addition, the system might not provide a warning when a collision with such an object is imminent.

“The optimum safety net for aviation is one that applies to all users,” stated Jon Baldwin, Rannoch’s Chief Systems Architect. “While aircraft-based ground proximity devices dramatically improve safety for equipped aircraft, our ground-based system provides safety benefits to all classes of users throughout the airspace.”

The patents add to an impressive track record of innovation at Rannoch, which now possesses over 25 patents and patents pending that cover many aspects of aviation safety, surveillance, air traffic control, noise management and airport operations.

The three latest patents are U.S. patents 7,123,192, 7,126,534, and 7,132,982.