The European Tripartite Group (ETG), which represents Eurocontrol, the European Union and the European Space Agency, is to add a third geostationary satellite to provide enhanced coverage for the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS).
In addition to the two Inmarsat-3 satellites, the ETG has decided to use the Artemis satellite for the navigation system, Eric Perrin, project manager for the European global navigation satellite system (GNSS) secretariat told the Air Navigation International/Flight International navigation conference in Amsterdam on 21-23 September.
The Artemis data communications satellite is due to be launched in early 2000. "Modifications are already under way to accommodate the EGNOS transponder," says Perrin. The EGNOS ground segment will include 44 ranging and integrity monitoring stations, four mission processing and control centres, six navigation land earth stations and the EGNOS wide area network.
The preliminary design review of the advanced operational capability (AOC) of the system is nearing completion, says Perrin. This will be followed by the critical design phase from October and trials using the EGNOS testbed towards the end of this year. "For aviation, EGNOS is being developed to meet all technical ICAO navigation requirements for en route down to Category I landing, primary means by the year 2002, and sole means - full operational capability - by 2005," he says.
Doubts concerning EGNOS remain, however, with growing airline support for local area augmentation system developments. The EGNOS is "a wrong business investment", Vincent de Vroey, assistant technical affairs at the Association of European Airlines, told the conference. The EGNOS will not allow airlines to meet their major objectives of increased safety, reduced costs, increased capacity and reduced delays/increased schedule reliability, he says.
Source: Flight International
