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Alexandria, VA – January 23, 2006 – The United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Rannoch Corporation patent number 6,992,626, which includes a number of innovative techniques for airport operational data fusion.

The patent includes innovative techniques to automatically import, integrate, and manage tower broadcast data including ATIS and D-ATIS, weather data including AWOS and LLWAS, aircraft operational and situational data including TCAS and ACARS. Providing this data stream, into an airport management system in real time, where it can be recorded, correlated, and queried is unique in the industry. This patent represents just one more innovation in a continuing series of revolutionary ideas that Rannoch Corporation has brought to the airport operational monitoring business since the mid 1990s.

Rannoch has been offering the integration and fusion of these operations data streams along with highly accurate multilateration and ADS-B aircraft tracking in its AirScene airport management system for over two years and clients have enthusiastically welcomed the new capability.

"The use of D-ATIS helps me to fully understand the operations at Louisville, and when combined with accurate flight tracks and aircraft identification, provides a complete picture for environmental management," commented Bob Slattery, Louisville Regional Airport Authority’s Noise and Environmental Programs Coordinator. In addition to Louisville, Rannoch’s proprietary data fusion capability is operational at other airports, including Indianapolis International and will be installed later this year in Boston. The DATIS data also includes the METAR (meteorological area report), runways in use, field conditions, NOTAMS (notices to airmen), and current advisories. Used by pilots, this is the most reliable and accurate source of information about the airfield conditions.

“Rannoch recognized that without techniques to automatically acquire, import, and correlate operational data into the AirScene airport management system, it would not be possible to determine what conditions existed at the airfield at any given time,” stated Thomas Breen, Rannoch’s Aviation Information Systems Manager. “Having this type of data available in the AirScene system allows our clients the unique ability to accurately document which runway was in use and why. They can also run reports based on the actual airfield conditions and other critical information available only from this type of system. This capability is a must have for any modern operational monitoring system as it allows the user the ability to fully understand the all the important conditions that might affect operations at the airport,” added Breen.

“Traditional systems have attempted to fill in this essential data from a combination of nonintegrated sensors and systems such as standalone weather stations, internet weather data, voice recorders, and flight tracking but none of these sources represent the actual data the pilots are accessing and no other system has been capable of importing this data automatically into the operational database,” stated Alex Smith, President and CEO of Rannoch. “Adding a highfidelity operational context to an accurate multilateration and ADS-B flight tracking system provides a complete air traffic picture, in real time,” added Smith.