ION Technical Content
Airborne Applications
| Abstract: | Dr. Kayton described various airborne vehicles and the navigation techniques they use. He described techniques used by air carriers, en-route and for approach and landing, noting that they have been fully automated during the past 20 years. He reviewed on-board and traffic-control techniques in developed and undeveloped areas. He described the use of ADF, VOR, Loran, and soon DGPS for non-precision approaches and of ILS, MLS, and soon inertially-aided DGPS for precision approaches. Dr. Kayton described the many types of military aircraft, their specialized navigation needs (such as air drops, carrier landing, tree-top flight, and route-optimization to minimize risk), and the techniques they use. He then described the outlook for the future, that is being driven by the remarkable performance of GPSI GLONASS. These satellite systems provide instant navaids in underdeveloped areas and promise a historic change in the mix of navigation aids. He predicted that GPS will last about 20 years because it is expensive to operate and there is no convenient way to collect user charges. Dr. Kayton predicted that GPS would be replaced by Comm-Nav satellites for which navigation charges are a small part of their overall costs. Once Comm-Nav satellites are in service, the VOR nets and the ground-communication network serving aircraft will be decommissioned. Positive control of aircraft will be possible world-wide. Dr. Kayton discussed the role of navaids in integrated avionic systems and the growing importance of Plight Management Systems as central mission computers. Map storage for display to the crew and digital navigation data are now a major business. The data are provided by government agencies, navigation-aid companies, and private map-makers (one of whom is about to sell approach plates on CD-ROM on which terrain contours will be shown for difficult airports). Dr. Kayton described the creation of the navigation training business, whose goals are to teach crewmen to use the keyboards and displays of the many navigation devices in their aircraft. These part-task trainers (sometimes called “Computer-Based Trainers”) reduce the time spent by crews in expensive full-mission simulators. |
| Published in: |
Proceedings of the 1994 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 24 - 26, 1994 Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA |
| Pages: | 13 - 13 |
| Cite this article: | Kayton, Myron, "Airborne Applications," Proceedings of the 1994 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 1994, pp. 13-13. |
| Full Paper: |
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