The Use of Global Navigation Systems in the Aviation Industry

The GPS navigation system, initially tested as Block Iin the 1970s and early 1980s, was developed as an operational system in the 1980s, and became fully operational in the 1990s. Today, modernization is underway to provide additional, more powerful, more robust, and more flexible civil signals for navigation. As we look forward to a combined GNSS featuring Galileo and modernized GPS, opportunities to enhance civil aircraft navigation emerge. These opportunities require mutual cooperation between the aviation authorities which operate the augmentation systems and the GNSS designers who are developing the next generation of space-based navigation systems. The benefits of cooperation range from reduced total ownership costs to a seamless, interoperable global navigation solution. This paper begins to identify the challenges facing government policy makers, while demonstrating the mutual benefits of global cooperation on space-based navigation.