CANADIAN MARCONI (CMC) says that it has received the world's first primary-means oceanic/remote approval for a flight-management/global-positioning system (FMS/GPS).
The US Federal Aviation Administration has granted the approval for a dual CMC CMA-900 FMS/GPS installation in an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-200.
Primary-means oceanic/remote approval allows the CMA-900 to be used for instrument-flight-rules operation beyond ground navigation-aid coverage, with the GPS as the sole long-range navigation sensor. The CMA-900 consists of a CMC-built 12-channel GPS receiver, flight-management computer and control/display unit.
To gain approval, the system had to be able to track GPS satellites down to 5° above the horizon, or lower, and be able to detect and exclude faulty satellites in less than 5min.
Source: Flight International
