Current Uses of Dsns in Sierra ' S Automatic Flight Inspection System

This paper presents current and future uses of Differential Satellite Navigation Systems in Sierra Research’s Automatic Flight Inspection Systems (AFIS). The purpose of an Automatic Flight Inspection System is to inspect and calibrate ground-based aircraft navigation and landing aids. In Sierra’s inertial-based flight inspection system, a square root Kalman filter estimates the navigation errors in real time, and a modified Bryson-Frazier smoother improves these estimates immediately post profile to provide the most accurate aircraft position for calibration of en route and final approach navigation aids. Current uses of DSNS include performing differential GPS techniques post mission to test the accuracy of the aircraft position estimate during flight tests of Sierra’s APIS installed on a BAe 125-800. These results will be presented. DSNS has the accuracy potential to be used in real time for ICAO Category III final approach flight inspection. This paper will present the results of a simulation and analysis performed to determine the appropriateness of DSNS technology in an Automatic Flight Inspection System.