How 5G clashed with an aviation device invented in the 1920s

A technological innovation that has helped pilots fly since the 1920s is now at the heart of the dispute between airlines and AT&T and Verizon over 5G, an innovative service meant to speed up mobile devices.The clash has been years in the making and came to a head in the past few weeks. AT&T and Verizon agreed Tuesday to restrict 5G near airports after airlines warned that potential interference from it could cause a crucial device on planes to malfunction, and force them to cancel flights. Even with the airport restriction, a number of international airlines Tuesday canceled flights to the United States, though some of those flights were restored. instrument in question is a radio altimeter. It was first developed in the 1920s but still plays a crucial role in planes, helping pilots determine a jet’s altitude and its distance from other objects. In some planes, altimeter readings are fed directly into automated systems that can act without input from pilots. As aviation experts describe it, the 5G system used by AT&T and Verizon works in similar frequencies to the ones used by altimeters.“You do not want to be on plane landing without the altimeter working,” said Diana Furchtgott-Roth a former deputy secretary at the Department of Transportation in charge of researching new technologies. She added that aviation regulators were correct in raising concerns about 5G and were taking appropriate steps to ensure safety.RELATED Majors airlines cancel, change flights to U.S. over 5G disputed Why airlines fear 5G will upend travel FAA clears most big jets to land at Sea-tac Airport; regional planes are not cleared of 5G riskmorebut telecommunications experts say that there is little or no risk to altimeters from 5G and that the aviation business has had years to prepare for what little risk there is. “The science is pretty clear — it is hard to repeal the laws of physics,” Tom Wheeler, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, wrote in a piece for the Brookings Institution in November, in which he noted that FCC engineers had found no real cause for concern.
Skip Ad Boeing & Aerospace log In Subscribe now 5G clashed with an aviation device invented in the 1920sJan. 20, 2022 at 4:00 pm Updated Jan. 20, 2022 at 5:29 pmthe potential for interference between 5G signals and the radio altimeters long used by pilots has divided... More By Stephen GandelThe New York Times a technological innovation that has helped pilots fly since the 1920s is now at the heart of the dispute between airlines and AT&T and Verizon over 5G, an innovative service meant to speed up mobile devices. The clash has been years in the making and came to a head in the past few weeks. AT&T and Verizon agreed Tuesday to restrict 5G near airports after airlines warned that potential interference from it could cause a crucial device on planes to malfunction, and force them to cancel flights. Even with the airport restriction, a number of international airlines Tuesday canceled flights to the United States, though some of those flights were restored.The instrument in question is a radio altimeter. It was first developed in the 1920s but still plays a crucial role in planes, helping pilots determine a jet’s altitude and its distance from other objects. In some planes, altimeter readings are fed directly into automated systems that can act without input from pilots. As aviation experts describe it, the 5G system used by AT&T and Verizon works in similar frequencies to the ones used by altimeters.“You do not want to be on plane's landing without the altimeter working,” said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a former deputy secretary at the Department of Transportation in charge of researching new technologies. She added that aviation regulators were correct in raising concerns about 5G and were taking appropriate steps to ensure safety.RELATED Majors airlines cancel, change flights to U.S. over 5G disputes by airlines fear 5G will upend travel FAA clears most big jets to land at Sea-tac Airport; regional planes are not cleared of 5G riskmorebut telecommunications experts say that there is little or no risk to altimeters from 5G and that the aviation business has had years to prepare for what little risk there is. “The science is pretty clear — it is hard to repeal the laws of physics,” Tom Wheeler, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, wrote in a piece for the Brookings Institution in November, in which he noted that FCC engineers had found no real cause for concern.ADVERTISING Skip AdSkip Adskip Adwhat are aviation safety experts worried about?The altimeter was patented by Lloyd Espenschied, a prolific inventor who spent more than 40 years working for Bell Labs, the celebrated research arm of AT&T. The device functions by sending out radio waves to determine a plane’s location relative to the ground and other objects. an altimeter’s waves don’t bounce back because of 5G interference, or can’t be distinguished from other nearby waves, the altimeter could give the wrong reading or not function at all, said Peter Lemme, a former Boeing engineer who spent 16 years at the company designing safety systems that relied on altimeters. malfunctioning altimeter, for example, could prompt a plane’s computers to warn pilots about phantom obstacles or prevent systems from warning pilots of real threats.The Helicopter Association International held a webinar last week for its members on 5G interference. One of the panelists was Seth Frick, a radar system engineer at Honeywell Aerospace, which makes altimeters for many aircraft, including its own military helicopters. Frick said Honeywell had found a range of errors, from altimeters “getting noisy” to providing no reading, in the company’s testing of 5G interference.“I don’t know if there’s any causes where we can say there is absolutely no interference,” Frick said on the webinar.Pilot tend to rely on altimeters when visibility is limited by, say, fog. But they are not used in most landings, which is why some wireless experts have dismissed the aviation industry’s concerns as hyperbolic. In addition, wireless experts have said most modern altimeters should be able to filter out interference.