NAV CANADA has inked an agreement with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to further extend the benefits of satellite navigation technology for all aircraft operators who fly in Canadian airspace.
NAV CANADA’s customers have been using the global positioning system (GPS) to
fly more efficiently since the early 1990s. The agreement will see the extension
of the FAA’s Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) into Canada, involving the
construction of four monitoring stations.
This will result in a significant improvement in GPS navigational performance
for satellite-based approaches in Canada and in the northern part of the lower 48 states by late 2005.
“We welcome this new collaborative agreement with the FAA, which promises to
deliver significant benefits to our customers through increased accessibility to
many airports,” said John Crichton, NAV CANADA President and Chief Executive
Officer.
“Being a part of the WAAS system also demonstrates the value to our customers of
sharing technology and thus avoiding the cost of developing duplicate systems –
an approach we have already successfully pursued with our home-grown technology
solutions.”
Aircraft receivers will use GPS/WAAS signals to pinpoint lateral and vertical
position to within 2 metres with very high reliability, allowing pilots to fly
approaches with vertical guidance in cloud to as low as 250 feet above ground
without any approach system infrastructure at an airport.
Today’s GPS approaches do not provide vertical guidance, and typical minimum
altitudes are 100 to 300 feet higher, resulting in more flight disruptions due
to weather.
While the current ground-based instrument landing systems installed at many
Canadian airports allow descent to 200 feet above the ground in cloud, each
comes at a cost of about $1 million.
“The comparative cost of GPS/WAAS approaches, once the system is installed, will
be much lower. So our customers stand to benefit in two ways – through greater
efficiency in flight and through a more cost effective air navigation system,”
Crichton said.
The terms of the agreement cover the installation of monitoring stations in
Winnipeg, Goose Bay,
Gander and Iqaluit. NAV
CANADA will provide the sites and maintain the stations.
The Canadian WAAS stations will be combined with others in the USA and Mexico to
provide seamless service in North America.
The WAAS has four main components: monitoring stations installed at selected
locations, master stations, uplink stations and geostationary satellites. The
monitoring stations assess the quality of the signals from each GPS satellite
and send data to master stations which in turn create the WAAS signal.
The WAAS signal is then uplinked to geostationary satellites orbiting over the
equator, which rebroadcast the signal to aircraft on the GPS frequency. Telesat
Canada will provide WAAS service from its Anik F1R satellite, to be launched in
3Q 2005.