Flight Information Services are the one mostly on demand by the passengers. A set of conventional and latest Flight Information Services are available through the Internet, Media Publications, Printed Flight Schedule documents, Telephones etc. Airport in-house flight information schedules are available through closed circuit television display (CCTV), Public Address Systems and Flight Information Display Systems (FIDs).

The Flight Information Display systems are cost intensive and so are available mostly at international airports only. Airport specific Flight Information Display Systems are not available in domestic airports in view of cost consideration of the system. Public Address Systems are provided in most of the Indian domestic airports for flight information. The performance of such systems is inadequate. Unclear and voice-blurred flight announcements at the domestic airports are a source of widespread public criticism. Hence, there is a necessity to look for a suitable Flight Information System for domestic airports.

This paper addresses a new Flight Information System. The system has been developed with detailed technical specification ready for manufacturing a new product indigenously. The Flight information system developed and suitable for domestic airports is christened as FLIGHT INFORMATION BOARDS (FIBs) that are different from FIDs.

The information on flight schedule in an airport is available to the traveling public from any of the following sources. :

• Airline operators' published Flight Schedules
• Tour operators' Communication Network Systems
• Flight Information Schedules through internet of respective airlines' web sites
• Flight Information Display Boards at Airports
• Flight Announcements through Public Address Systems
• Visual Display Systems through CCTV

The above sources of information on flight schedules have their inbuilt deficiencies. The flight schedules published through documents by airline operators, tour operators and web site administrators do not reflect the changes in the schedule at the time of reference, since the publication of these documents are seasonal and are included as available at the time of publication only. Changes are not reflected as and when they happen.

The availability of the published documents is restrictive and limited to regular passengers only. The flight announcements through public address systems are unclear and voice -blurred because of the inbuilt system deficiency due to poor design without reference to acoustic parameters. The acoustic treatment in the building is costly. A good sound system needs to be designed by computer simulation for which a large set of technical parameters is necessary. Most often, details are not available on such dynamic parameters and characteristics of construction materials, occupancy pattern and atmospheric changes in pressure, volume and sound reverberations inside the terminal building. Hence, known and insufficient static parameters are the basis of the design of the audio announcing system in the terminal building. The performances of such systems have been always inadequate. The CCTV system has been the alternative, since the cost intensive FIDs, mostly imported, have been considered as low-application utility in domestic airports.

However, FIDs being a popular and noiseless system for flight information, efforts have been made to develop an alternative system by redesigning the FIDs system with reference to it's utility in domestic airports. A new breed of cost economic customized FID system has been developed.

The technical specifications of conventional FIDs have been re-examined and designed with modified hardware system structure with specific motive to develop a cost effective flight information system. Table-2 gives the standard format of a conventional FIDs Departure Board at International airport.

TABLE - 2 FIDs IN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS

Each module has 64 flaps or 32 / 16 flaps. Each flap has flexibility of 26 - 30 English alphabets in each module, which change positions to a particular character to make the required destination, time, flight no. etc. This high flexibility of meeting any required information creates a large volume of data in matrix form. The board with 10-flight information shall have a matrix of 12 x 64 x 30 for selection accounting 2 lines for column headings. Individually driven DC mini motors select each alphabet forming a word or sentence of the information and this configuration multiplies to the number of lines. With this hardware structure, one can imagine the number of components and electronics used for the system. All these add to the cost and especially with the installation of such Boards at more locations in International airports
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Table-3 shows the standard format and the hardware adopted in FIBs proposed for domestic airports.

Thus, only 10 modules are required for domestic airports as seen in Table-3, against 34 modules required for international airports as seen in Table-2. Each module can have either 16 flaps or 32 flaps. Each flap need not have 30 characters with 30 miniature motors. Instead, statically known Flight Destinations, which are definite and known, could be printed using screen-printing and the mini motors could be reduced each one to a flap. The number of lines of information is also limited to maximum 5 lines. The Flight Information Boards installed at different locations in the terminal could be controlled from one main center through a mini controlled console or Personal Computer. The split Flap Boards shall be integrated with colour monitors (CCTV), where the Flight Information is also displayed.

With these changes, the energy consuming DC mini motor and the electronics control console complexity with flexibility of adding additional flaps at a later stage ensures huge reduction in cost, and increase in higher utility. The flight destinations can be changed as per the airline flight schedule as and when required by just changing the screen-printing. The hardware is designed in modular concept which configuration could be best selected and installed at any time.

The power consumption of FIBs will be very low since the use of miniature motors has been drastically reduced in number and the power is used only at the time of change of information which is again minimal in view of the fixed information through screen printing.

The content of Information Boards shall depend on the location and the relevant details. The locations and the content for a domestic airport shall be:

• One 5/3 lines 60mm - 65mm Main Departure FIB
• One 3 lines 60 mm - 65mm Main Arrival FIB
• One 2 lines 100 mm FIB for Boarding Gate

All the above Boards shall be controlled through a Central Operating Console (COC). The main flight database available in COC and flight data for display is retrieved automatically from the Actual Flight Table (AFT). Manual operation is also possible for corrections, updations on current flight schedule through the personal computer. This system is integrated with CCTV system in the Terminal building.

The system has the ability to send flight information messages to distant locations using modems. The system shall support graphics, which could be used for advertisement. The system could be interfaced for automatic digitalized announcement system and automatic telephone enquiry system.

The split flap display system shall be modular and has flexibility to add on as requirement grows. The characters / information shall be screen printed on both side of the flaps which shall be fitted on a drum. The drum is rotated to display the information. Each of these flaps shall have position code, which shall be optically read by the microcomputer to align the flap. The position of the flaps shall be under the close control of the microcomputer. The standard alphanumeric modules shall be used for standardization. The electronics used in the system design shall be:

• 60-65 mm and 100mm character height modules
• 32/16 flap position capacity
• Absolute flap positioning read back
• No homing into zero position while information is changed, average positioning time half of revolution time.
• All solid state electronic read back to reduce the need for elaborate mechanical adjustments
• Position read back without flap movement
• Low noise level and reduced wear and tear
• Permanent magnet synchronous motor to guarantee instant start / stop operation
• Solid data electronics unaffected by environmental conditions such as humidity, corrosion and vibrations etc
• Glass epoxy circuit boards and gold plated contacts to make the modules suitable under severe environments
• Pre-loaded flaps to snap into exact position

The system will be supported with on line UPS and Constant Voltage Transformer (CVT) to supply the power to the computer systems and control equipment. The central controlling computer system software shall have features that make it both powerful as well as simple to use. The user interface is fully menu driven and friendly to control a large number of monitors network with minimal commands.

The new system, FIBs have the following technical attractions and advantages:

• The cost of FIBs is 60% cheaper over conventional FIDs
• The utilization factor is high on Performance / Pricing rates
• The maintenance is minimal since the moving components have been drastically reduced
• The system has less power consumption and operating cost
• Current flight schedule could be interlinked from the intranet
• The system has operator friendly control console and monitoring Board
• The system is suitable for domestic airports, is innovative and cost effective
• The system is noise free and environment friendly.

The concept of the new system and specifications for FIBs for domestic airports were conceived and developed by the author. The systems are manufactured and installed by competitive tendering. The installations, at each airport , are consisting of the following display boards at a total system cost of Rs.35 lakhs.:

The cost of these systems is 40 % of the cost of the systems that are used at International Airports, for displaying the same information. The 5 line Board each costs Rs.5.85 lakhs, and 2 line Board each costs Rs.1.4 lakhs The common Control system with one Computer, Software tools, UPS , and cabling including installation adds Rs.6.0 lakhs. This cost reduction was possible by optimizing the configuration of longer flap modules to display destination and flight code with one main module and with 16/32 flaps.

Inauguration of Flight information Display system at Calicut Airport on 12.09.02 by Sh. Roy Paul, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The FIBs are installed successfully and are operational since September 2002 at the 14 domestic airports in India :- Jaipur, Lucknow, Srinagar, Bagdogra, Guwahati, Agartala, Hyderabad (2 systems), Pune, Vizag, Coimbatore, Calicut (2 systems), Mangalore, Madurai and Trichi. More domestic airports will have this system in future.