Increased Air Traffic at Majors Field Expected During 5G Testing

Mar. 24—The skies above Hunt County may be getting a little more crowded during the next few days as testing of new technology continues at Majors Field Airport.

L3Harris Technologies announced this week that it will host a Department of Defense Joint-Interagency 5G Radar Altimeter Interference Quick Reaction Test at its Greenville location.

In collaboration with the other federal agencies, L3Harris is hosting a flight test evaluation of numerous large military and civil aircraft, which will be flown near mobile 5G C-band cellular communication systems.

The issue of aircraft safety and the use of 5G networks has been on the Federal Aviation Administration's radar since telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon recently rolled out their C-band 5G networks.

C-band utilizes a set of radio frequencies that boost Internet capabilities. The C-band, however, is in close proximity to a band of frequencies used by aircraft radar altimeters, which indicates to a pilot how high their plane is off the ground.

The instrument is crucial for landing in low-visibility situations.

During the flight-testing at Majors Field, aircraft will conduct numerous instrument approaches and low-level approaches in the presence of a 5G C-band cell tower located on the airport to test 5G signals and aircraft avionics systems.

Flight-testing at Majors was scheduled to begin Wednesday and continue through April 8.

The daily flight activity will include airplanes and helicopters flying in Hunt County airspace.

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