Evaluation of Several Navigation Algorithms for Application to General Aviation

Abstract

general aviation aircraft. The advent of small, low cost, digital computers may make such systems economically practical for small aircraft in the near future. However, since the navigational algorithms employed will have a major impact on the usefulness and ultimate cost of such systems, there is a need to understand the trade-offs between capability and computational complexity.Previous work in this area has addressed commereial applications (Refs. 1, 2, and 3). In these studies data rates, computer storage requirements, and implementation complexity were essentially unconstrained due to the use of relatively large and fast general-purpose digital flight computers, multiple VOR (VHF omnirange) and DME (distance measuring equipment) receivers, and sophisticated central air data computers, making the cost and complexity of such systems beyond the reach of most general aviation applications. 10.