At a gathering at K-State Salina Friday morning state officials unveiled what Kansas Director of Aviation Jesse Romo said was the finest web application of its type. The Kansas Aviation Portal went live to the public for the first time.

According to the Kansas Department of Transportation Aviation Division, in 2011 it released the nation’s first Airspace Awareness Tool. It was designed to increase the awareness of potential obstacles around Kansas airports. The aviation portal builds upon the original airspace tool with expanded capabilities and data layers that show economic impacts, system plans, pavement conditions at airports and 3-D animation.

The upgrade to the airspace awareness function includes the ability to test new or proposed structures against the FAA’s notice criteria tool. The tool will color code the proposed obstructions if they require an FAA airspace study.

Romo said that it is the first time so much aviation data has been made available all in one place,  free to the public. He jokingly called the improved capabilities of the protal  “2.OMG”.

The portal which has been developed over the past year by KDOT and Burns and McDonnell. can be found at http://ksaviationportal.ksdot.org/.  Access to the portal may require a browser update.