FAA To Test Satellite Navigation at KEWR

[cancidas]

from FlightGlobal:

FAA to test satellite navigation at Newark Liberty International
By Rob Coppinger
Continental Airlines, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the US Federal Aviation Administration are to invest more than $6 million for a ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) satellite navigation technology demonstration. The demonstration will take place at Newark Liberty International airport from August.

Continental, the largest carrier at the airport, is spending $1.1 million for Boeing to outfit 15 aircraft with GBAS equipment and to train pilots to use it. The demonstration is costing the FAA $2.5 million and the port authority is investing $2.5 million with Honeywell Aerospace for the ground equipment. Honeywell is the only FAA-certificated GBAS provider.

GBAS, also known as the local area augmentation system, uses four antennas on the airport's grounds and a VHF datalink to satellites, which communicate on aircraft positions.

William DeCota, the port authority's aviation director, says that for the cost of installing Category 3 instrument landing system equipment on one runway, "we could one day provide its GBAS equivalent for a whole airport". DeCota expects GBAS to be widely used by 2015. Newark will use GBAS after the demonstration and hopes to eventually reduce aircraft spacing and have curved approaches to increase capacity.

Honeywell's precision landing system product marketing manager Daniel Ryan says Cat 3 GBAS could be feasible in three years and that Honeywell will have installed GBAS equipment at five US airports by December, including Minneapolis St Paul and Seattle Tacoma.

The port authority operates New York Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark and Teterboro airports. GBAS is part of its congestion alleviation work for La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark, which is also spending $19.7 million upgrading its ILS.

[mmedford]

The port authority operates New York Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark and Teterboro airports. GBAS is part of its congestion alleviation work for La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark, which is also spending $19.7 million upgrading its ILS.

See what I don't get, is that the ILS systems are maintained by the FAA, I don't think we receive our funding from Port for them. I shall inquire tommorrow...

But; Several organizations are spending millions to use GPS technology, why hasn't the pentagon stepped in and started handing out bills for usage fees yet?

[Matt Molnar]

Several organizations are spending millions to use GPS technology, why hasn't the pentagon stepped in and started handing out bills for usage fees yet?
GPS is only a one way signal (satellite to ground) so there's no mechanism for charging usage fees.

[mmedford]

Several organizations are spending millions to use GPS technology, why hasn't the pentagon stepped in and started handing out bills for usage fees yet?
GPS is only a one way signal (satellite to ground) so there's no mechanism for charging usage fees.

Ok I'll give you that, there is no way to us to properly calculate GPS usage. But there has to be some fees incurred to keep the system operationals...

[njgtr82]

Several organizations are spending millions to use GPS technology, why hasn't the pentagon stepped in and started handing out bills for usage fees yet?
GPS is only a one way signal (satellite to ground) so there's no mechanism for charging usage fees.

Ok I'll give you that, there is no way to us to properly calculate GPS usage. But there has to be some fees incurred to keep the system operationals...

Yea its called our tax dollars at work. The government owns the airspace as well but theres no charges for the use directly.

[mmedford]

Well it maybe owned by our government, but it's still the property of DoD. Have companies such as Garmin or Magellan even kicked in on a satellite or two?

I just think we are all becoming to heavily reliant of the GPS system; what are we to do in cases when the public is excluded from using GPS when the military sees fit?

[njgtr82]

Have companies such as Garmin or Magellan even kicked in on a satellite or two?


No the DOD owns all of the GPS satellites and offers it for free to civilians

[Matt Molnar]

Well it maybe owned by our government, but it's still the property of DoD. Have companies such as Garmin or Magellan even kicked in on a satellite or two?

I just think we are all becoming to heavily reliant of the GPS system; what are we to do in cases when the public is excluded from using GPS when the military sees fit?
The DoD would have the GPS system in place whether there were civilian uses or not. Your dashboard Garmin Muvi receives the same exact signal as a 737's navigation computer and the crazy 3D GPS computer in a USMC Humvee. The differences are all on the user end, not the satellite end, so it costs the government nothing extra to have it open to civilian use. If the government wanted to charge us for it they would have implemented it back when they opened up the system...too late now. It's just one of the many things developed by the government that ends up available for the public sector...i.e. Velcro, and Tang! All the satellites are built by companies like Rockwell (now Boeing) and Lockheed Martin but are owned by the DoD. The government DOES make money off the deal. Sales of civilian GPS equipment generate sales taxes for the states where they are purchased, corporate taxes from the companies that make the devices and income taxes from those companies' employees.

It could probably be argued we are becoming too heavily reliant on a lot of technologies that are at risk of being shut off by the government (or bad guys), i.e. the Internet. I think it's safe to assume most mission critical GPS applications, like airliner navigation, have backups. If they shut off or jammed the GPS sats, pilots would still be able to figure out where they are. If someone starts a trip and their GPS dies half way through, there are still ways to find your way...just requires some common sense.

[Mateo]

why hasn't the pentagon stepped in and started handing out bills for usage fees yet?You can't charge usage fees, but you can add a levy to any GPS-enabled device to be paid at the time of purchase.

As a reply to the DoD enabling civilian use, GPS has been around since the mid-80s, or so, but civilian access was limited to a very low resolution. It was only in the mid-90s that civilians were given access to the unencoded signal that allowed for much more precise location. The DoD does presumably retain the ability to degrade the accuracy of civilian GPS, if need be, while preserving the high resolution of military applications.

[USAF Pilot 07]

If they shut off or jammed the GPS sats, pilots would still be able to figure out where they are. If someone starts a trip and their GPS dies half way through, there are still ways to find your way...just requires some common sense.


You mean I'll actually have to do a fix-to-fix using navaids and not GPS???

We are definitely super reliant on GPS and will become even more so. There are approaches that have both course and glideslope guidance using just GPS. It definitely is a great tool and has really done a lot for aviation and will become the future of aviation.
There are small airports in the middle of nowhere that now have "non-precision" approaches with minimum descent altitudes just a few hundred feet AGL that you would have never been able to get into in bad wx before GPS.

All that being said, even when GPS is working, it's always a good idea to back it up with conventional navaids.