Digital

Avionics
Aircraft Navigation LN
1A

M S Prasad,
Amity Institute of space science
& Technology

This lecture note is a supplement to class room discussions. Mainly prepared from open
literature & published books by various authors
 Digital Avionics
Aircraft Navigation: Basic( LN -1A)
Navigation is based on the measurement of aircraft position, aircraft motion
and time, derived from aircraft sensors. These measurements are used in flight
guidance to control altitude, heading and airspeed to follow a flight plan in
terms of a lateral and vertical flight path. In practice, the errors in the sensor
measurements can be estimated from knowledge of the sensor or may be
bounded.

Navigation referred as Rho – theta , Theta - theta , Rho -Rho

Navigation systems can be categorized as absolute navigation systems, dead-

reckoning navigation systems, or mapping navigation systems. Absolute
navigation systems measure the state vector without regard to the path
traveled by the vehicle in the past. These are of two kinds: radio systems and
celestial systems .Radio systems consist of a network of transmitters
(sometimes transponders) on the ground or in satellites. A vehicle detects the
transmissions and computes its position relative to the known positions of the
stations in the navigation coordinate frame. The vehicle’s velocity is measured
from the Doppler shift of the transmissions or from a sequence of position
measurements. The second of the absolute navigation systems, celestial
systems, measures the elevation and azimuth of celestial bodies relative to
local-level and true north. Electronic star sensors are used in special-purpose
high-altitude aircraft and in spacecraft. Manual celestial navigation was
practiced at sea for millennia

Dead-reckoning navigation systems derive their state vector from a continuous

series of measurements beginning at a known initial position. There are two
kinds: those that measure vehicle heading and either speed or acceleration
(Section 18.4) and those that measure emissions from continuous-wave radio
stations whose signals create ambiguous “lanes” (Section 18.5). Dead
reckoning systems must be updated as errors accumulate and if electric power
is lost. The only dead reckoning radio system, Omega, was decommissioned in
1997.

Lastly, mapping navigation systems observe and recognize images of the

ground, profiles of altitude, sequences of turns, or external features . They
compare their observations to a stored data base, often on compact disc.
Aircraft navigation is also subject to constraints:

• Magnetic variation – this varies slowly with aircraft position and is easily
modeled in a simulation;

• Wind – this varies with time, position and altitude and although it is difficult
to measure directly in an aircraft, the direction and magnitude of wind is likely
to be known in a simulator;

• Malfunctions – these can occur in sensors, displays and beacons causing

erroneous measurements; in a simulator, it is essential to detect and replicate
all failure modes.

A wide range of sensors have been developed for aircraft, which can be
classified in the following groups:

• Direct measurement, for example, air data measurements;

• Dead reckoning, that is, extrapolating position from knowledge of an initial

position and subsequent measurements of velocities, accelerations, aircraft
heading and time;

• Distance from radio beacons or satellites;

• Bearing from radio beacons.

Navigation is also supported by the availability of various forms of navigation

data, including published charts, databases of radio beacon frequencies,
navigation procedures (e.g. approach plates) and onboard databases (e.g. flight
management systems and enhanced ground proximity warning systems).
Clearly, the same data must be used in both training in a simulator and in
actual flight. In the case of airlines, monthly updates of navigation data are
uploaded to the aircraft and simulators, and considerable care is given to
assuring that the data used in the simulators is up to date.

Aircraft position is referenced to the earth frame defined by latitude (degrees),

longitude (degrees) and altitude (feet above sea level), as shown in Figure 1. The
parallels of latitude .
 Range from 90 ◦S at the South Pole to 90 ◦N at the North Pole. The meridians
of longitude are aligned with reference to the prime meridian 0 ◦ , which passes
through Greenwich, near London and range from 180 ◦W to 180 ◦E. Note that
distance is derived from latitude.

1 nautical mile = 1 minute of latitude = 1/60 ∗ 1/360 ∗ 2πR = 6076 ft (1852 m)

where R is the radius of the earth.

This unit of distance is constant over the earth, that is, it is independent of
longitude or deformation of the earth. Note that distance is measured in
nautical miles in aircraft navigation, rather than statute miles (1 statute mile =
1609 m)

Aircraft velocity is measured in nautical miles per hour or knots (kt) and is
usually derived from measurements from an air data computer, which
measures static air pressure, dynamic air pressure and air temperature to
provide altitude, airspeed, Mach number and air density, with the appropriate
compensations for measurement errors. Four variants of velocity are measured
in an aircraft and need to be computed :

• True air speed (TAS) – in an aircraft, this speed is measured from the
dynamic air pressure and includes corrections for air density; in simulation,
TAS is derived from the body frame velocity U

• Indicated airspeed (IAS) – in an aircraft, this speed is measured directly from

the dynamic pressure and is displayed by the airspeed indicator; as the
measurement is not compensated by change of air density, it reduces with
increasing altitude; in simulation, IAS is given by IAS = U Square root of
density ratio;
• Calibrated airspeed (CAS) – this speed includes corrections for location of the
sensor and instrumentation; although this measurement is important in an
aircraft, it is generally assumed to be zero .

• Ground speed – the speed over the ground, including effects of wind; in
aircraft, ground speed is derived from INS, Doppler or GPS measurements; in
simulation, ground speed is given by √(V 2N + V 2 E) ,where VN and VE are the
north and east velocities with respect to the earth.

In an aircraft, altitude is measured by an air data computer, converting a static

pressure measurement to altitude. In simulation, the altitude is derived in the
flight model as Pz, recalling that altitude is positive downwards. Aircraft
altimeters are set to QFE, QNH or flight levels, by appropriate selection of the
barometric pressure setting of the altimeters. Regional pressure setting is one
of the environmental parameters that can be varied in a simulator to ensure
that pilots are trained to reference altimeters to airfield altitude, regional
pressure or standard pressure (1013mb). Variation of pressure should be
correctly indicated on the simulator altimeters, according to the pressure
variation .

In an aircraft, heading is derived from a magnetic compass measurement. In

simulation, true heading is given by the aircraft yaw and magnetic heading is
calculated by subtracting the magnetic variation at the current aircraft
location. The magnetic variation is given by isogonals (lines of common
magnetic variation), which are published. These are stored in an FMS to
compensate for magnetic variation. The isogonals change slowly, typically less
than one degree per year. However, the compass measurement is affected by
magnetic fields in an aircraft and by acceleration, and in simulation, it is
important to model the variation in magnetic compass readings caused by
accelerating flight. Note that compass heading is always given as degrees
magnetic rather than degrees true, although modern navigation displays can
be set to display either true or magnetic heading. In aircraft navigation, a pilot
will follow a track rather than a heading to allow for the effect of wind, The
wind results in a track and ground speed, which may vary from the aircraft
heading and airspeed.

Navigation Computations

In navigation, if an aircraft at a position (λ1, φ1) needs to steer to a position

(λ2, φ2),where λ and φ denote latitude and longitude, respectively, it is
necessary to know the relative bearing of (λ2, φ2) from (λ1, φ1). In flat earth
coordinates, this is a simple computation.

The relative bearing of (x2, y2) from (x1, y1) is given by α. The relative bearing
of (x1, y1) from (x2, y2) is the reciprocal of α ,given by α + π. From simple 2D
geometry,

Α = tan -1 ( x2-x1) / y2-y1) and the distance D is given by

D = √ (x2 − x1)2 + (y2 − y1)2

In practice, aircraft position, the location of radio beacons and the position of
airfields are given by latitude and longitude, based on spherical geometry.
Radio waves are assumed to follow great circle paths and computation of
relative bearing to (or from) a beacon or distance to a beacon is performed in
spherical coordinates.

The distance D between two points (λ1, φ1) and (λ2, φ2) on the surface of the
earth, where λ denotes latitude and φ denotes longitude is given by

d = (√(∆𝜆)2 cos 𝜆1 cos 𝜆2 (∆𝜑)^2 radians

D = R d where d is the distance in radians, R is the earth radius and Δλ = λ2 −

λ1 & Δφ = φ2 − φ1

The relative bearing ψ from a point (λ1, φ1) to a point (λ2, φ2) is given by

x = sin λ2 − sin λ1 cos d

y = cos λ2 sin∆φ cos λ1 and ψ = tan-1 ( | y/x|)

The absolute values of x and y are used in the computation because most arctan
functions are limited to the range 0 to π/2. The actual value of ψ depends on the four
possible quadrants (signs of x and y).If x < 0then ψ = π − ψ.If y < 0then y =−y. Care is
also needed to cater for small values of x, which could lead to numeric overflow. In
this situation, ψ = π/2or −π/2 (depending on the signs of x and y).
Over short distances, the track between two points is a straight line. However, this
path is curved for distances greater than a few hundred miles and forms part of a
great circle. A great circle is a circle drawn on the surface of the earth, where the plane
of the circle passes through the centre of the earth, for example, the equator and
meridians of longitude are great circles. A great circle has the following properties:

• The shortest distance between two points on the surface of the earth is an arc of a
great circle;

• There is only one great circle between two points.

Tracking along a great circle, from a point A to a point B, the heading relative to north
changes continuously, increasing from A to B, as shown in Figure 4. An alternative
representation is a rhumb line, which is line between two points, such that there is a
constant heading from A to B. Over short distances (less than 200 miles), a great circle
and a rhumb line between two points are almost identical. For oceanic routes, flown
under FMS guidance, it is not unreasonable to change heading to follow a great circle
route. However, for local area navigation, it is clearly preferable to fly along a straight
line without requiring any heading corrections. This requirement is reinforced by the
need to provide charts that are easy to follow in a cockpit and more particularly, where
the track between two points is shown as a straight line.

Great circle path

The latitude and longitude rates and definition are given below :
where λ is latitude, µ is longitude, R is the radius of the earth and h is the altitude
above mean sea level. Note the singularity as λ approaches −90 ◦or +90 ◦ , which
occurs flying directly over the north or south poles. Care is also needed with the
precision of the computation of latitude and longitude. The range of latitude is ±90 ◦
(±π/2) and the range of longitude is ±180 ◦ (±π). A standard 32-bit floating point
variable typically has 8 bits for the exponent and 24 bits for the mantissa. For
numbers in the range used to compute latitude and longitude, this corresponds to an
accuracy of approximately 10-7 . For an earth circumference of approximately 40 × 106
m, the floating point resolution is of the order 4m. In other words, the smallest
movement of an aircraft may be as high as 4m, which would result in unacceptably
jerky motion in the visual system as an aircraft taxies slowly. To avoid such problems,
double precision (64-bit) floating point arithmetic is normally used in the computation
of latitude and longitude.

Navigation Data Flow

The flow of navigation data and other system information is shown in the fig below :
Dead Reckoning system

The simplest dead-reckoning systems measure aircraft heading and speed, resolve
speed into the navigation coordinates, then integrate to obtain position .The oldest
heading sensor is the magnetic compass: a magnetized needle or an electrically excited
toroidal coil (called a flux gate), or an electronic magnetometer. It measures the
direction of the Earth’s magnetic field to an accuracy of 2 degrees at a steady speed
below 60 degrees magnetic latitude. The horizontal component of the magnetic field
points toward magnetic north. The angle from true to magnetic north is called
magnetic variation and is stored in the computers of modern vehicles as a function of
position over the region of anticipated travel.

A more complex heading sensor is the gyrocompass, consisting of a spinning wheel

whose axle is constrained to the horizontal plane by a pendulous weight. The aircraft
version (more properly called a directional gyroscope) holds any preset heading relative
to Earth and drifts at more than 50 deg/hr. Inexpensive gyroscopes such as MEMS
gyro with on-chip signal conditioning are often coupled to magnetic compasses to
reduce maneuver-induced errors and long-term drift. The usual speed-sensor on an
aircraft or helicopter is a pitot tube that measures the dynamic pressure of the air
stream from which airspeed is derived in an air-data computer. To compute ground
speed, the velocity of the wind must be vectorially added that of the aircraft Hence,
unpredicted wind will introduce an error into the dead-reckoning computation. Most
pitot tubes are insensitive to the component of airspeed normal to their axis, called
drift. Another speed sensor is Doppler radar that measures the frequency shift in
radar returns from the ground or water below the aircraft, from which ground-speed is
inferred directly. Multibeam Doppler radars can measure all three components of the
vehicle’s velocity relative to the Earth. Doppler radars are widely used on military
helicopters. The most accurate dead-reckoning system is an inertial navigator in
which accelerometers measure the vehicle’s acceleration while gyroscopes measure the
orientation of the accelerometers. An on-board computer resolves the accelerations
into navigation coordinates and integrates them to obtain velocity and position.

.Radio Navigation

Scores of radio navigation aids have been invented, and many of them have been
widely deployed, such as LORAN C , TACAN Beacons etc. The Global Positioning
System (GPS), a network of 24 satellites and 16 ground stations (in 2006) for
monitoring and control. An aircraft derives its three dimensional position and velocity
from one-way ranging signals at 1.575 GHz received from four or more satellites. The
GPS offers better than 30-meter ranging errors to civil users and 5-meter ranging
errors to military users.

During the 1990s, Russia deployed a satellite navigation system called GLONASS,
incompatible with GPS, which they casually maintain. In 2006, the European Union
was in the final stages of defining its own navigation satellite system, called
Galileo,which will offer free and paid services .The United States began a minor
upgrade of GPS in 2006 and plans a major upgrade by 2015 to reduce vulnerability to
jamming .After 2006, civil users will also receive at 1.176 GHz, thus allowing them to
estimate ionospheric errors.

Loran is used by general aviation aircraft for en route navigation and for non precision
approaches to airports (in which the cloud bottoms are more than 400 feet above the
runway). Loran’s 100 KHz signals are usable within 1000 nmi (a nautical mile is 1852
meters exactly) of a chain consisting of three or four stations .The vehicle-borne
receiver measures the difference in time of arrival of pulses emitted by two ground
stations, thus locating the vehicle on one branch of a hyperbola whose foci are at the
stations. Two or more station pairs give a two-dimensional position fix at the
intersection of the hyperbolas, whose typical accuracy is 0.25nmi, limited by
propagation uncertainties over the terrain between the transmitting station and the
aircraft.

ILS is used in landing guidance throughout the world. Transmitters adjacent to the
runway create a horizontal guidance signal near 110 MHz and a vertical guidance
signal near 330 MHz. Both signals are modulated such that the nulls intersect along a
line in space that leads an aircraft from a distance of about 15 nmi to within 50 feet
above the runway. ILS gives no information about where the aircraft is located along
the beam, except at two or three vertical marker beacons. Most ILS installations are
certified to the ICAO’s Category I, in which the pilot must abort the landing if the
runway is not visible at an altitude of 200 feet while descending. About two hundred
ILSs are certified to Category II, which allows the aircraft to descend to 100 feet above
the runway before aborting for lack of visibility. Category III allows an aircraft to land
at still lower weather ceilings. Category III ILSs detect their own failures and switch to
a redundant channel within one second to protect aircraft that are flaring out (within
50 feet above the runway) and can no longer execute a missed approach. Once above
the runway, the aircraft’s bottom mounted radio altimeter measures altitude and
either the electronics or the pilot guides the flare maneuver.

A worldwide network of approximately 40 SARSAT-COSPAS stations monitors signals

from Emergency Location Transmitters (on aircraft, ships, and land users) on the
three international distress frequencies (121.5, 243, and 406 MHz), relayed via low-
orbit satellite-based transponders. Software at the listening stations calculates the
position of the Emergency Location Transmitters within 5–15 km at 406 MHz and 15–
30 km for the others, based on the Doppler-shift history observed by the satellites, so
that rescue vehicles can be dispatched. Some 406-MHz Emergency Location
Transmitters contain GPS sets; they transmit their position to geostationary satellites.

The most widely used aircraft radio aid at the start of the third millennium is
VORTAC, whose station offer three services:

1. Analog bearing measurements at 108–118 MHz (called very high frequency omni
range (VOR));the vehicle compares the phases of a rotating cardioid pattern and an
omni-directional sinusoid emitted by the ground station

2. Pulse distance measurements (called distance measuring equipment (DME)) at 1

GHz. DME measures the time delay for an aircraft to interrogate a VORTAC station
and receive a reply

3. TACAN bearing information, conveyed in the amplitude modulation of the DME—

replies from the VORTAC stations.

Celestial Navigation

Human navigators use sextants to measure the elevation angle of celestial bodies
above the visible horizon.

The peak elevation angle occurs at local noon or midnight:

elev angle (degrees) = 90 – latitude + declination

Thus, at local noon or midnight, latitude can be calculated by simple arithmetic from a
table of declination(the angle of the sun or star above the Earth’s equatorial plane).
When time began to be broadcast to vehicles in the 1930s, off-meridian observations
of the elevation angles of two or more celestial bodies became possible at any known
time of night (cloud cover permitting). These fixes were hand-calculated using
logarithms, then plotted on charts by a navigator. In the 1930s, hand-held bubble-
level sextants were built to measure the elevation of celestial bodies from an aircraft
without the need to see the horizon.

The human navigator observed sun and stars through an astrodome on top of the
aircraft. The accuracy of celestial fixes was 5–50 miles in the air, limited by the
uncertainty in the horizon and the inability to make precise angular measurements on
a pitching, rolling vehicle.

Map-Matching Navigation

On aircraft, mapping radars and optical sensors present an image of the terrain to the
crew, whereas on unmanned aircraft, navigation must be autonomous. Automatic
map-matchers have been built since the 1960s that correlate the observed image to
stored images of patches of distinctive terrain, choosing the closest match to update
the dead-reckoned state vector. Since 1980, aircraft and cruise missiles measure the
vertical profile of distinctive patches of terrain below the aircraft and match it to a
stored profile. Updating with the matched profile, perhaps hourly, reduces the long-
term drift of the inertial navigator.

The profile of the terrain is measured by subtracting the readings of a baro-inertial

altimeter (calibrated for altitude above sea level) and a radio altimeter (measuring
terrain clearance). An on-board computer calculates the cross-correlation function
between the measured profile and each of many stored profiles on possible parallel
paths of the vehicle. The on-board inertial navigator usually contains a digital filter
that corrects the drift of the azimuth gyroscope as a sequence of fixes is obtained.
Hence, the direction of flight through the stored map is known, saving the
considerable computation time that would be needed to correlate for an unknown
azimuth of the flight path.

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45.

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