Development of a position reference system for flight tests based on GPS

At the National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands a Position Reference System for in-flight accuracy position measurements based on GPS has been developed and validated. The system uses differential GPS positions to correct the aircraft trajectory as delivered by an Inertial Reference System. This paper provides the requirements for the Position Reference System; and the system hardware and software are described. The system has been used during a number of flight test programs with Fokker prototype aircraft. A two month period of one of these programs was selected, flight test data from this period were processed in each of the update modes. The results are provided and discussed.