APALS Program Status, Pre-Production Flight Test Results and Production Implementation

James J. Hvizd and Otto W. Dieffenbach

Abstract:	The APALS* system is a precision approach and landing system designed to enable low visibility landings at many more airports than now possible. Engineering development of the APALSTM system began October 1992 culminating in the pre-production Advanced Development Model (ADM) system currently undergoing flight testing. The paper focuses on the Cat III accuracy and integrity requirements defined by ICAO, Annex 10 [l] and the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) Tunnel Concept [2]. The resulting ADM architecture developed to meet them is described. The primary measurement is made with the aircraft’s weather radar and provides range and range rate information to the ADM necessary to update the precision navigation state vector. The system uses stored terrain map data as references for map matching with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) maps. A description of the Pre-Production flight test program is included. Testing is being conducted at six different airports around the country demonstrating system performance in various environmental conditions (precipitation, heavy foliage, sparse terrain, over water and turbulence). ADM flight test results of 131 successful CAT II hand-flown approaches at Albuquerque, NM and Richmond, VA are presented. Detailed statistical analysis of these results indicate that the APALSTM system meets the RNP for Cat III.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1996) June 19 - 21, 1996 Royal Sonesta Hotel Cambridge, MA
Pages:	305 - 311
Cite this article:	Hvizd, James J., Dieffenbach, Otto W., "APALS Program Status, Pre-Production Flight Test Results and Production Implementation," Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1996), Cambridge, MA, June 1996, pp. 305-311.
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