Geolocation technologies for aerospace
Presentation
The purpose of this page is to present:
- The different technological solutions for aeronautics geolocation in terms of:
- data transmission
- installation on board of an aircraft
- The advantages and disadvantages of each type of solution
- the magnitudes of the purchase and operating costs (excluding setting costs)
Geolocation principles
- A mobile device (in our case an aircraft) is equipped with a position receiver (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, ...) in order to get its location in three dimensions
- And with a transmitting device to send this position to a ground station
- This ground station sends the location data to a server accessible from the internet network for its use by software solutions including mapping applications to display the position of the aircraft.
GNS position reception
Two networks of global navigation system are operational
- GPS: Managed by the U.S.
- GLONASS: Managed by the Space Force of the Russian Federation
GALILEO constellation launched by a European consortium is expected to be available in 2016
Aircraft on board reception is made by an antenna included in a device or external to the equipment and wired to a box housing electronic for decoding and position computation.
The possible combinations are:
- Certified aircraft equipment, fixed to the inside of the aircraft and connected to an external antenna
It is best to have an external GPS antenna for the aircraft to ensure better reception of satellite signals.
- Certified external antenna connected to a non-certified equipment installed in the aircraft with a mouting system dedicated for this purpose
- Bottom reception connected to a tablet or a smartphone wirelessly (Bluetooth, wifi, ...)
- Autonomous box including antenna
