From Regional Airport to National Programme: Copperchase's ADS-B Surveillance System

In September we launched the Copperchase ADS-B Surveillance System. In October we took you inside the platform: how data fusion works and how the Event Processing Engine turns live tracks into alerts.

This month is about scale, and why we don’t sell ADS-B in sizes. A single-runway aerodrome, a busy regional airport, a military airbase and a growing vertiport network all need one real-time ADS-B surveillance picture of air and ground traffic that their air traffic control and operations teams can trust. But they don’t need the same system. So rather than offering small, medium and large packages, every Copperchase deployment starts with a conversation.

• Built around you: how we tailor each system with you, and what a regional airport design might look like
• Performance: the indicative figures behind the picture
• Drone & vertiport operations: bringing Remote ID drones and eVTOL aircraft into the same view
• What’s next:  where the platform goes from here

Many surveillance suppliers sell in sizes: small, medium or large. We don’t. No two sites share the same layout, traffic mix, RF environment or existing systems, so every Copperchase ADS-B deployment is designed with the customer, around their operation. That holds whether it’s a single-runway aerodrome, an international hub, a military airbase or a transportable kit for exercises.

1. We sit down with you: your operation, the traffic you need to see (aircraft, vehicles, gliders, drones), the risks you manage and the systems already in place.
2. We survey your site: coverage, sensor positions, network paths and power, so receiver numbers come from your site, not a price tier.
3. We design from our technology range:  the right receivers, vehicle trackers, processing, operator positions and only the interfaces you need, each licensed separately.
4. We build, test and train: factory and site acceptance testing, operator and technical training, and documentation for your system as built.
5. We stay with you: as your operation changes, we add modules rather than sell you a bigger package.

Every one of these decisions is made with you, based on your needs:

• Coverage: how many receivers, where, and which sources: 1090 MHz ES, 978 MHz UAT, FLARM or Drone Remote ID
• Ground traffic: standard ADS-B trackers for follow-me and rescue fleets, encrypted trackers for security-sensitive vehicles, or lower-cost GPS trackers
• Resilience: a single server or active/standby with automatic failover; embedded recording or a full Recording & Playback System
• People: operator workstations, video walls and Mobile Client devices for the apron or vehicles
• Integration: ATM/A-SMGCS, AODB, SCADA, BMS, security, fire alarm, obstacle lighting, sirens and barriers, each only if you need it
• Security: optional cybersecurity hardening where your environment calls for it

Example: a regional airport. For illustration, a typical regional airport design might include three outdoor ADS-B receivers, ten vehicle trackers, two redundant servers, one operator workstation and one mobile unit. A neighbouring airport with a different layout, fleet or traffic mix would get a different design. That’s the point.

A tailored system never locks you into its first size. Acquisition, processing and presentation are separate modules joined by defined interfaces, so capacity grows in three independent directions:

• More sensors:  add receivers or vehicle trackers to extend coverage or redundancy
• More processing: scale the fusion, tracking and event engines for higher track counts, up to multi-site or national installations
• More users: add workstations and Mobile Client users without touching sensors or servers

A deployment can start at one runway and grow into a national programme, supporting air navigation service providers and national air traffic control services, by adding modules, not starting again.

Whatever shape your system takes, the platform underneath is designed to hold up to 2,000 aircraft and vehicle tracks at once, refreshed at least every second and on screen in under 1.5 seconds.

Measurement to Indicative value

Simultaneous tracks: Up to 2,000 combined aircraft and vehicle tracks

Track update rate: ≤ 1 second per track

Sensor-to-display latency: < 1.5 seconds

System availability: 99.99% (target)

Recording archive: 90 days online; up to several years in archival storage

Those figures rest on resilience at every level, as any safety-critical air traffic control system should. Overlapping receivers mean losing one sensor degrades coverage rather than removing it. Processing runs on active/standby servers with automatic failover, and operator displays reconnect on their own. The Control & Monitoring System watches every receiver, link and service, and shows their health alongside the live traffic.

At the receiver level, each outdoor unit processes more than 2,000 messages per second with GNSS-locked timestamping (< 20 ns RMS on the dual-channel model). That precision is what lets the Data Fusion Engine turn overlapping reports into one clean track per target.

Figures are indicative. Your system’s performance depends on site conditions, sensor selection and network design, and is confirmed with you by Copperchase engineering as part of the design.

The Copperchase ADS-B Surveillance System is an independent Copperchase product. We design, develop and support the whole platform, own its roadmap, and draw on our own range of hardware and software to fit each site.

Receivers and trackers that see the traffic. We choose the right mix for each site:

• Dual-channel ADS-B receiver: two 1090 MHz channels with true antenna diversity, for sites where detection performance and redundancy come first
• Multi-band ADS-B receiver: one antenna feed covering 1090 MHz plus 868/915 or 978 MHz, with built-in Drone Remote ID, ideal for general-aviation-heavy airfields
• ADS-B vehicle tracker: ADS-B Out for follow-me cars, tugs, buses and rescue vehicles, so ground vehicles appear alongside aircraft

All outdoor receivers share a compact IP67 enclosure, Power-over-Ethernet supply and GNSS-synchronised timestamping. Because the vehicle tracker transmits standard ADS-B Out, it works with ADS-B and multilateration infrastructure from any vendor.

Software built by Copperchase. The Data Fusion, Tracking and Event Processing Engines, Traffic Situation Display, Control & Monitoring System, Recording & Replay and Interface Gateway are all Copperchase modules, configured for your site.

Open by design. The platform is built on open standards such as ASTERIX and the 1090 MHz ES and 978 MHz UAT formats, so it plugs straight into existing ATC systems and ATM software, and no customer is locked into a single sensor supplier.

Drones and eVTOL aircraft are joining airspace built for conventional traffic, one of the most common challenges in airspace development today. The platform brings them into the same picture. Receivers pick up Drone Remote ID (built into the openAir multitrack, optional on the duo), and the Data Fusion Engine correlates those drones with manned aircraft and ground vehicles in one view.

The same aviation safety monitoring rules that protect runways now protect vertiports:

• Vertiport traffic monitoring: a real-time picture of every Remote ID-equipped drone and eVTOL aircraft on and around the site
• Approach and departure corridors: conflict monitoring where drones, eVTOL aircraft and conventional traffic share airspace
• Unauthorised drone detection: graded Advisory, Warning or Critical alerts when a drone enters restricted, protected or geofenced airspace
• Vertiport ground operations: tracking eVTOL and support-vehicle movement on pads, taxi routes and stands, using the same logic as runway and apron monitoring

Alerts can also trigger real-world responses through the Interface Gateway, from CCTV and access control to sirens and barriers. For heliports, offshore installations and critical-infrastructure sites, that means drone awareness without a separate system.

Cooperative surveillance is central to the future of air traffic control, and the platform keeps growing in the directions our customers need.

• ED-129C ground station: a rack-mount, dual-channel 1030/1090 MHz ground station with ±50 ns timestamping, 90-day RF recording and built-in self-monitoring, extending ATM data output to ASTERIX CAT021, CAT023, CAT025, CAT034, CAT048, CAT062 and CAT247
• Full Recording & Playback System: a standalone tier for large hubs and defence programmes, with longer retention, many simultaneous replays and automated evidentiary exports
• More surveillance sources: additional standards integrated as projects require, without changing the core architecture
• Security & compliance: optional cybersecurity hardening with role-based access, encryption, audit logging and network segmentation; more on this in December

Whether you run one runway, a regional airport, an airbase or a national network, your ADS-B surveillance system should fit your site, not just a package size. Contact us at sales@copperchase.co.uk and our team will sit down with you, understand your operation and design a system around it, alongside the air traffic services and air traffic control solutions Copperchase already provides.