US Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey says an independent risk assessment which said the global position system (GPS) can be the sole means for navigation services, was "a very good first step regarding specific technical questions." The report was compiled by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
She says the US aviation agency must now "figure out a transition strategy for a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), including consideration of the cost implications". Garvey may offer a clearer picture of US planning for GPS and the companion Wide Area Augmentation System and Local Area Augmentation System when she addresses the International Civil Aviation Organisation General Assembly on 12 March. A senior FAA official says Garvey hopes to use the forum to clear up confusion on GPS.
IATA director general Pierre Jeanniot has also weighed into the GPS debate by hitting out at recently announced European Commission plans to build its own satellite navigation system. There is no "economic advantage" in the European Galileo system, and Jeanniot suggests that European Commission funding would be better spent supporting an international organisation providing GPS services.
"We can work together on the Space Station. Why not on an international navigation system? The world only needs one GPS constellation," he says.
Source: Flight International
