SOME SYSTEM CONSIDERATIONS FOR MLS AIRBORNE PROCESSORS

J. Beneke and C. Wightman

Peer Reviewed

Abstract: The Microwave Landing System (MLS) is under development by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a replacement for the VHF/UHF ILS. The following are some of the features this microwave landing aid will provide : - Accurate guidance signals that will be relatively insensitive to weather, terrain, airport structures, and other aircraft - Flexible flight paths as an aid to noise abatement and increased airport capacity - Accurate guidance signals that permit less separation of parallel runways - Low cost versions appropriate for smaller airfields - A common civil/military system having compatible tactical military versions. Currently the two competing techniques, scanning beam and Doppler scan, are under evaluation for selection as the United States Microwave Landing System. The selected system technique will be a candidate for submission to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) evaluation of new landing systems. A common international MLS is the ultimate goal of the FAA developmental program. The discussions presented here are based upon some results of a techniques analysis program sponsored by the FAA and reported in Ref. (1, 2). Some of the system requirements will be considered with respect to their effect upon design parameters in the airborne processors for angle guidance data. Performance in typical multipath environments will be analyzed with the differences noted between the scanning beam and Doppler scan techniques. Techniques for rejecting multipath interference from other aircraft and airport structures will be discussed since they are essential in the MLS to provide precision guidance in a severe multipath environment.
Published in: NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 22, Number 1
Pages: 35 - 46
Cite this article: Beneke, J., Wightman, C., "SOME SYSTEM CONSIDERATIONS FOR MLS AIRBORNE PROCESSORS", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 22, No. 1, Spring 1975, pp. 35-46.
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