Flight Safety Performance of the Microwave Landing System

Daniel J. Berninger

Abstract:	The Microwave Landing System (MLS) is scheduled to be implemented progressively over the next 10 years. It is intended supplant the Instrument Landing System (ILS) as the international standard landing aid. MLS has been demonstrated to be superior to ILS from both performance and reliability stand points, yet considerable debate persists on its relative merits. Although tolerance criterion for flight safety are embedded in these comparisons, flight safety has not been a major component of these discussions. This paper addresses why flight safety has not been an issue and relates observations on the flight safety of MLS from a systems point of view. Observations are derived from a review of available documentation and operational results to date. The United States is committed to retain ILS service at international gateway airports until 1995 under an agreement with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The 75 gateway airports are among the busiest in the U.S. and are prone to capacity and delay problems. Collocation of MLS and ILS is not limited by the technology but does pose additional complications in the management of aircraft utilizing ILS in the same airspace as aircraft under MLS guidance.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1989) June 27 - 29, 1989 Alexandria, VA
Pages:	9 - 13
Cite this article:	Berninger, Daniel J., "Flight Safety Performance of the Microwave Landing System," Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1989), Alexandria, VA, June 1989, pp. 9-13.
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