APALS Program Status and Pre-Production Flight Test Results

James Hvizd

Abstract:	The APALST” system is a precision approach and landing system designed to enable low visibility landings at many more airports than is now possible. Engineering development of the APALS”” system began in October d 1992 culminating in the pre-production Advanced Development Model (ADM) system currentl~,,undergoing flight testing. An overview of the APALS system is presented. The paper focuses on the Cat III accuracy and integrity requirements as defined by ICAO, Annex 10 [I] 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 aircratYs weather radar and provides range and range rate information to the ADM necessary to update the precision navigation state vector. The system makes use of 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 to demonstrate system performance in various environmental conditions (precipitation, heavy foliage, sparse terrain, over water and turbulence). ADM flight test results of 6 1 successful CAT II hand- flown approaches at Albuquerque, New Mexico ate presented. Detailed statistical analysis of these results indicate that the APALST” system meets the RNP for Cat Ill.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1996 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 1996 Loews Santa Monica Hotel Santa Monica, CA
Pages:	529 - 535
Cite this article:	Hvizd, James, "APALS Program Status and Pre-Production Flight Test Results," Proceedings of the 1996 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Santa Monica, CA, January 1996, pp. 529-535.
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