[OSM-talk] [tagging] Feature Proposal - RFC - aeroway_obstacle

[Andras Fabian]

Proposal 

An Air traffic obstacle is a tall structure (a node, or linear feature) which can endanger air traffic. Air traffic 
obstacles have to be marked in most cases with red and white colored markings and with aircraft warning lights at night. 
On larger structures blinking lights are required. This definition was taken from Wikipedia, see: Air traffic obstacle 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_traffic_obstacle)
OSM already has the category aeroway for marking and categorising anything to do with where (mainly civilian) aircraft, 
helicopters take off and land. Obstacles are an important part of air navigation - especially in in low visibility 
conditions - as they need to be avoided at any cost. OSM also already has most of the potential obstacles as features - 
like the man_made structures lighthouse, tower, beacon - but lacks any kind of tagging, which explicitly and 
additionally categorizes them as being air traffic obstacles. 

Rationale 

This new feature would make it possible, to additionally mark physical features as being hazardous obstacles in the 
aeroway category. This would enable map makers in the air navigation sector, to enrich their air navigational charts 
with this relevant information. 
A secondary - and also very important to the proposing party - application would be to use this information in flight 
simulation and thus in flight training. One specific case on hand is the X-Plane flight simulator (http://www.x-
plane.com/) which is lacking this data outside the United States. This data is seldom available freely to the public, 
and even in those cases is not of the best quality (the above mentioned wiki links lists three such examples). 
As a result of this the feature, the scenery developer of X-Plane flight simulator could much more easily include this 
data into their system. But of course, it would be open to every other simulator too. 

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Proposed_features/aeroway_obstacle


Andras Fabian
www.alpilotx.de