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ACARS
(meaning [A]ircraft [C]ommunication [A]ddressing and [R]eporting
[S]ystem) is a digital data link system transmitted via VHF
radio which allows airline flight operations departments to
communicate with the various aircraft in their fleet.
This VHF digital transmission system, used by many civilian
aircraft and business jets, can be likened to "email for
airplanes," as the registration of each aircraft is it's unique
address in the system developed by aeronautical radio giant
ARINC (Aeronautical Radio, Inc.). Traffic is routed via ARINC
computers to the proper company, relieving some of the necessity
for routine voice communication with the company. With ACARS,
such routine items as departure reports, arrival reports,
passenger loads, fuel data, engine performance data, and much
more, can be requested by the company and retrieved from the
aircraft at automatic intervals. Before the advent of ACARS,
flight crews had to use VHF to relay this data to their
operations on the ground. |
