ABSTRACT
Why, it may be asked, should a lost-in-space warning about satellite navigation be issued? Undeniably, the highly touted Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) represents a quantum leap towards improvement in navigation for both corporate and general aviation (GA) pilots. Moreover, the foundation of GNSS, the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) comprising 24 earth-orbiting satellites, will surely bring into the flight deck an advanced world of avionics promising unprecedented capability for providing pilots with precise navigation information in all phases of flight. Indeed, GPS is already improving GA en route flight under both visual flight rules (VFR) and instrument flight rules (IFR), as well as the navigation of IFR nonprecision approaches. Eventually, as Johns (1997) points out, through augmentation systems such as ground-based local and wide area differential GPS, satellite navigation is expected to provide for cost-effective flying of precision approaches.
