Aeronautical applications of GPS, Galileo & Co

Air transport has become an indispensable part of our modern civilisation. Today there are about 15,000 commercial aircrafts in operation and about 31,000 are envisaged for the year 2030. This growth is fuelled by surging passenger numbers—with recent predictions calling for 220 million airline passengers per year in 2029, while 2009 featured ‘only’ 80 millions. At the same time, 250,000 General Aviation (GA) aircraft provide for another substantial number of movements in the air; movements that need to be controlled and coordinated to ensure safety and to avoid congestions.

Guiding an airplane from A to B under all weather conditions requires Air Navigation Systems (ANS). ILS, NDBs, VORs are proven systems, however, they represent also expensive infrastructures and smaller airports cannot readily afford such systems, since they have difficulties offsetting the related CAPEX and OPEX with their low passenger numbers. GPS, GLONASS and Galileo provide a way out of that cost issue—provided that they can ensure a Safety-of-Life (SoL) service. Such a service provides a constant feedback loop to the GNSS user telling him whether the satellite navigation signal is reliable to enable safe flight navigation and landings. EGNOS, WAAS, GAGAN, MSAS and SDCM are all representatives of such Space-based Augmentation Systems (SBAS), providing a SoL-service to the various GNSS services. Developed in the last two decades, these systems have recently reached a high stage of maturity; consequently more and more airports adopt their approach and landing procedures to facilitate SBAS-supported Approaches with Vertical Guidance (APV).

Once fully established, satellite navigation will ultimately change the way we take-off, fly and land airplanes, by giving us the possibility to fly effectively from A to B, and adapting take-off and approach routes using 3D patterns, which respect both the terrain and noise/pollution concerns of neighbours. In the end both the pilots, the air traffic controllers and the people on the ground will be rewarded by higher safety, quicker flights due to shorter routings, improved congestion and reduced fuel consumption.