FAA/Honeywell/Northwest GPS Flight Test Program: Summary of Results and Their Implications

Robert Loh, Victor Wullschleger, Jim Crowling, Frank Alexander, Ronald Braff, Roger N. Schmidt

Abstract:	The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aviation industry are participating in joint efforts to investigate the operational benefits of using commercially available Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite receivers integrated with a state-of- the-art flight management system (FMS), an inertial reference system (IRS) and a digital air data computer (DADC). This report documents the results from the first two phases of a five phase Government/Industry program to flight test an aircraft using navigation information based on the integration of such equipment. The results from the flight test program suggest that under certain conditions, the accuracy of GPS derived navigation is sufficient for 200 feet decision height Cat I auto coupled precision approaches [l]. However, because only a limited set of data have been collected, additional flight tests will have to be performed at different airports, with different aircraft, and under different weather conditions to verify and validate these results. In addition to the accuracies demonstrated, specific continuity of service and integrity requirements must also be met before 200 feet decision height precision approaches could be conducted using any form of satellite based navigation. Principal organizations involved with the flight test program are FAA Satellite Program Cffice, FAA Flight Standards, FAA Technical Center, Honeywell, Northwest Airlines and the Air Transport Association, and MITRE.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 5th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1992) September 16 - 18, 1992 Albuquerque, NM
Pages:	87 - 98
Cite this article:	Loh, Robert, Wullschleger, Victor, Crowling, Jim, Alexander, Frank, Braff, Ronald, Schmidt, Roger N., "FAA/Honeywell/Northwest GPS Flight Test Program: Summary of Results and Their Implications," Proceedings of the 5th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1992), Albuquerque, NM, September 1992, pp. 87-98.
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