Aviation

Aviators all through the world use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to enhance the security and efficiency of flight. With its accurate, uninterrupted, and global capabilities, GPS offers seamless satellite navigation services that satisfy many of the requirements for aviation users. Space-based position and navigation enables three-dimensional position determination for all phases of flight from departure, on the way, and arrival, to airport surface navigation.

The trend toward an Area Navigation concept means a better role for GPS. Area Navigation allows aircraft to fly user-preferred ways from waypoint to waypoint, where waypoints do not depend on ground infrastructure. Procedures have been expanded to use GPS and augmented services for all phases of flight. This has been especially true in areas that lack suitable ground based navigation aids or surveillance equipment.

New and more efficient air ways made possible by GPS are continuing to expand. huge savings in time and money are being realized. In many cases, aircraft flying over data-sparse areas such as oceans have been able to safely reduce their separation between one another, allowing more aircraft to fly more favorable and effective routes, saving time, fuel, and increasing cargo income.

Improved approaches to airports, which largely increase operational benefits and safety, are now being implemented even at remote locations where traditional ground-based services are unavailable. In some areas of the world, satellite signals are augmented, or improved for special aviation applications, such as landing airplane during poor visibility conditions. In those cases, even greater accuracy operations are possible.

The good news for the aviation group of people is that GPS is being continually improved and modernized. A main component of the ongoing civilian modernization effort is the addition of two new signals. These signals complement the existing civilian service. The first of these new signals is for general use in non-safety vital applications. The second new signal will be worldwide protected for aviation navigational purposes. This additional safety-of-life civilian signal will make GPS an even more robust navigation service for many aviation applications.

The second safety-of-life signal will facilitate significant benefits above and beyond the capabilities of the current GPS services. The accessibility of this signal offers increased instrument approach opportunity all through the world by making the use of dual-frequency avionics possible. Dual frequency means that errors that occur in the signals due to disturbances in the ionosphere can be significantly reduced through the simultaneous use of two signals. This will improve the overall system validity, to include accuracy, availability, and integrity, and will allow a precise approach capability with little or no ground infrastructure investment.

Dependence on GPS as the foundation for today and tomorrow's air traffic management system is a major part of many national strategies. Those aviation authorities that are moving onward with GPS have observed and documented reductions in flight time, workload, and operating costs for both the airspace user and service provider. GPS also serves as an essential component for many other aviation systems, such as the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) that has proven successful in reducing the risk of Controlled Flight into Terrain, a major cause of many aircraft accidents.