Investor's Business Daily, September 20th, 2007
In December 1995, an American Airlines jet slammed into a mountain while descending in clear conditions near Cali, Colombia.
The crash claimed 159 lives.
The year before, a Learjet 25D operated by Mexican carrier Taesa hit trees while approaching Dulles International near Washington, D.C. It cost 12 lives.
Between 1985 and 1995, 134 crashes involving perfectly functioning planes flying into terrain killed thousands of people.
These would be the last of what the airlines call controlled-flight-into-terrain accidents.
Donald Bateman, chief of technology at Honeywell International, HON was about to release its improved version of the Ground Proximity Warning System, or GPWS, which he invented in the early 1970s.
His new Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System, or EGPWS, would eliminate pilot error and make the aviation industry safer than ever. The system was launched in 1996. Since then, not one such accident has taken place. Numerous lives have been saved.
Such was Bateman's lifelong goal, and he has come through.
Bateman, a Canadian-born engineer, invented the Ground Proximity Warning System and developed the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System, used in 99% of worldwide aircraft.
"Don Bateman has done more for aviation safety than anyone I can think of," Bob Vandel, executive vice president of the international Flight Safety Foundation, told IBD. "And I don't know anybody who would argue with me on that."
Here's why: With Bateman's GPWS and EGPWS up and running, pilots almost never steer planes into terrain, obstacles and water. The systems make sure aviators see and hear clearly.
Keep 'Em Aware
The EGPWS provides visual and auditory warnings up to one minute before a plane closes in on anything in its way. "It's one of the biggest breakthroughs in the safety of aviation in the last couple of decades," said Ted Taveras, a pilot for the private Valley Jet out of Phoenix.
Taveras said of the system: "It gives you a heightened sense of situation awareness. We (as pilots) operate in 3-D and not in two-dimensional space. There are things coming at us from all over the place."
Bateman's inventions have helped Taveras and other pilots fly and land safely.
"You can see a definite downtrend in fatalities in airlines following the invention of the GPWS," Vandel said. "And since Don has put out the EGPWS, there has not been an aircraft accident in the controlled-flight-into-terrain regime on an aircraft that has been equipped with an EGPWS. That's unbelievable. That's how good that is. That's how good Don Bateman is."
Bateman, 75, grew up in Saskatchewan in central Canada. He visited air shows with his father and quickly became hooked. He wanted to fly those planes.
Then came tragedy. He saw two military planes collide in midair and felt a calling. He had to save lives. Bateman went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan. He also hit the air, becoming a multiengine and instrument-rated pilot with thousands of hours of flight time.
Meanwhile, Bateman used his engineering skills at Boeing in the 1950s and joined United Control Corp., now part of Honeywell, in 1960. He had a close look at an industry that suffered 10 controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT) accidents a year throughout the 1960s.
His answer was to invent the GPWS in the early 1970s.
The way he designed it, the device warned pilots when they came close to obstacles. Its look-down technology gave pilots 12 to 15 seconds to steer clear of unsafe terrain.
"Don Bateman went around the world trying to explain how the system would work," Vandel said. "And it was like any other electronic device. It had small glitches. Well, the difference with Don is he cared. He cared so deeply that any problem anybody had he made sure that (his firm) took care of it."
The tilt toward safety was dramatic. The average CFIT accident risk for large commercial jets in North America fell from four per million departures in 1966 to one per million departures in 1974, according to Honeywell.
The Federal Aviation Administration was so impressed, in 1974 it ordered the system for large airplanes.
Was Bateman satisfied? Hardly. He and his team started working to improve the warning system.
Although the GPWS was a great innovation, it had limitations. Due to its reactive, look-down-only design, pilots could still -- without warning -- fly into mountains or buildings straight ahead on their flight path.
Also, once the plane was ready to land, the GPWS warnings were modified or disabled.
The system assumed the pilot intended to land the aircraft. If a pilot were to misinterpret the plane's approach and prematurely configure the aircraft for touchdown, he faced a CFIT risk.
Bateman fixed that problem. Thanks to his brain and management, Honeywell came out with the Enhanced Global Positioning Warning System in 1996.
"The original GPWS system used information from the aircraft's air data system and radio altimeter to advise and warn pilots of nearing terrain," Taveras said."The new enhanced system (EGPWS) uses satellites and GPS technology coupled with a database of terrain elevation features on a topographic map to more accurately and precisely advise pilots of nearing terrain."
Bateman and his team adopted worldwide terrain databases from the U.S. Defense Department and other global government agencies. He pushed to make certain terrain maps public and helped correct errors in terrain data.
In addition, Bateman worked with the makers of flight management systems to integrate land and satellite navigation information into EGPWS hardware. The enhanced system combines visual and aural alerts, giving pilots a big heads up.
The method mixes a digital database of the world's terrain with the aircraft's location and altitude.
Pilots see an illuminated color panel depicting the distance to surrounding terrain.
They hear a synthesized voice announce "terrain ahead" at 45 seconds and "too low terrain" at 20 seconds before a possible hazard.
"Even if it's cloudy and you can't see outside, in the system in your display in the cockpit, you can see exactly where the terrain is to navigate around it. It's an amazing system," Taveras said.
In 1996, the FAA ordered the EGPWS on all U.S. commercial airlines. In 2002, the agency made it mandatory for all U.S. registered turbine-powered airplanes with six or more passengers.
The Safety Net
Bateman's invention kept saving lives. American CFIT accidents dropped to less than one per year with the EGPWS -- after the one to two per year with the conventional GPWS.
Bateman's contribution to the aviation industry has earned him more than 40 U.S. and 80 foreign patents in avionics technology.
He's also received numerous awards from the Flight Safety Foundation and was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
"Don is a very quiet, unassuming man who just wants to make aviation safer. And he has a burning desire to do that," Vandel said.
The way he sees it: "I think the two greatest inventions in safety are the jet engine and the EGPWS. Don Bateman is a great, great man, and all he cares about is saving lives."
