{"80881":{"#nid":"80881","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Not for Pilots Only: Flight-mapping Software Attracts Broad Audience with Its Diverse Capabilities","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EYet researchers never envisioned how pervasive FalconView would be - both in terms of its users and uses.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe multimedia software displays aeronautical charts, satellite images and elevation maps along with overlay tools that, for example, mark no-fly zones and ground obstructions. Originally designed for the U.S. Air Force\u0027s F-16 (known as the Fighting Falcon), FalconView has been adopted by a wide variety of aircraft and spread throughout other branches of the U.S. military. Most recently, it was enhanced for the Army\u0027s use. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAn integral part of the military\u0027s Portable Flight Planning Software, FalconView counts more than 20,000 users today. The software has won several awards, and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates even devotes a chapter to it in his book, \u0022Business @ the Speed of Thought.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Convenience and time savings have been two key reasons for FalconView\u0027s success,\u0022 said Terry Hilderbrand, a division chief at Georgia Tech Research Institute\u0027s (GTRI) Information Technology and Telecommunications Lab. In fact, one FalconView user estimated that the software sliced his mission planning from 4.5 hours to 20 minutes. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EEase of use is another big benefit. Case in point: Hilderbrand loaded FalconView on his son\u0027s laptop computer two days before his son, a member of the Third Infantry Division at Fort Benning, was deployed to Iraq.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022There was no time to give him training on the software,\u0022 Hilderbrand says. \u0022Yet he was able to figure out the program on his own and generate maps for leaders in his platoon and battalion in Iraq, which was important to rapid movement in the desert.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFalconView\u0027s open architecture and interoperability also have contributed to its popularity, and several European nations use a special version of the software for their air forces.  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFalconView is now used for a wide range of mapping activities, including many non-combat objectives: \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0095 Firefighting:  The U.S. Forest Service has used FalconView to help drop fire retardant and communicate with ground workers about where and how fast forest fires are spreading.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0095 Whale sightings:  FalconView has helped the U.S. Navy track whales for an environmental study. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0095 Drug traffic:  U.S. Customs agents use FalconView to track drug-runners who fly small aircraft into the country. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0095 Forensics tool:  Members of the military\u0027s history department have used the mapping software to help in missing-in-action cases by recreating geographic conditions on the days that aircraft have crashed.\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"When Georgia Tech Research Institute engineers developed FalconView\u0099 in the early 1990s, their goal was to make flight planning easier for pilots by moving mapping software off big Unix systems and onto desktop and laptop computers.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2004-07-20 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:38","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-07-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2004-07-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/gtresearchnews.gatech.edu\/newsrelease\/falconview.htm","title":"Expanding uses"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=\u0022\u003EContact  \u003C\/a\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}