AN OMEGA RECEIVER NAVIGATION SET FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE AIRCRAFT

Francis J. Enge

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	A BASIC PROBLEM when considering Omega as a high-performance aircraft navigational aid is that the Omega navigational output is essentially a real-time updating of the aircraft’s position within a lane of position which itself is being updated from an original known position. Since the lane in which present position is indicated is determined by an arithmetical count of lane widths from the original known position, the count cannot be interrupted, but must be continuous. If the Omega signals are lost for a period of time sufficient for the receiver to pass through one or more lanes, the lane count will be in error, and must be corrected by dead-reckoning or other means. Lane loss is a definite problem on a high-performance aircraft. For an aircraft velocity of 1,800 knots perpendicular to the hyperbolic contours, a lane crossing would occur every 16 seconds for an 8 n.m. width. Therefore, should the Omega signals dropout for more than 16 seconds, and no other updating be provided, the land count would be erroneous inserting errors of 8 n.m. increments per lane loss. Therefore, either other Omega tones would have to be utilized to check the lane count by resolving the 8 n.m. ambiguity or, external inputs would be necessary to periodically check and update the lane counter. It should be noted that the lane widths are 24 miles for a two-frequency receiver, and 96 miles for a three-frequency receiver.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 13, Number 4
Pages:	343 - 347
Cite this article:	Enge, Francis J., "AN OMEGA RECEIVER NAVIGATION SET FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE AIRCRAFT", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 13, No. 4, Winter 1966-1967, pp. 343-347.
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