Beijing To Use New Parallel Approach System

Beijing’s Capital International Airport, expanding to handle 2008 Olympics traffic, has opted not to use traditional radar monitoring of simultaneous approaches on its future parallel runway layout. Aircraft using its two 12,500-foot-long runways will be tracked by multilateration–a network of small, unmanned “listening posts” that triangulate the positions of every transponder-equipped aircraft within 30 miles–with better accuracy, much lower cost and almost five times the update rate of terminal radar. The system is supplied by ERA (née Rannoch) of Alexandria, Va.