AIS Capability for Flightcell DZMx

Flightcell has added yet another capability to the DZMx product platform to help aircraft rendezvous with ships at sea. The technology is called Automatic Identification System (AIS).

AIS is a tracking system for marine vessels where a transponder onboard a ship continually broadcasts its identifier, its position, its course and its speed. AIS is used to track vessels on a global scale, and ships can see other ships that are in their area and assist with collision avoidance. It is very similar to ADS-B for Aircraft.

VHF radio is used to transmit this information to terrestrial base stations and to other ships. It is also picked up by satellite networks, so the ship can still be tracked when it is out of range of the VHF base stations.

The Flightcell DZMx receives AIS data and presents aircraft and vessel positions in the Marine Navigation App (iNavX) app. Flight crews identify the marine vessel they need to fly to and are able to see its distance from them, the required bearing to fly on, and their anticipated arrival time.

High resolution data is presented when the DZMx is paired with the Shine Micro SA161 VHF AIS receiver and is in VHF range of the ship, and lower resolution when the DZMx is receiving AIS directly via Iridium’s Short Burst Data (SBD) service.