The first commercial Special Category 1 (SCAT 1) approaches using the Honeywell/ Pelorus satellite landing-system (SLS) will be flown at Newark, New Jersey, and Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota, airports in December, according to the US avionics manufacturer.
The approaches will be flown by Continental Airlines' Boeing MD-80s fitted with SCAT I equipment, including global-positioning-system (GPS) receivers, VHF datalink receivers and flight-management-system (FMS). The approaches will use the SLS-2000 system which became the first differential GPS ground station to receive US Federal Aviation Administration-type acceptance in August. It has been operating at Minneapolis/St Paul since April 1996, but approval has been slow because "-there were no procedures in place required to certify a system like this", says Honeywell airport control director of business development, Jay Mesiti.
The SLS-2000 is designed to serve all runway ends within a radius of 35-55km (20-30nm).
The SLS-2000 was originally selected by Continental Airlines and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at Newark International for Project Newark, sponsored by the Air Transport Association. The data collected will be used by the FAA as the baseline for future certification procedures for precision approaches. The system has also been installed at Regina and Saskatoon airports in Saskatchewan, Canada, while two SLS-2000s have also been bought by NASA for use with its Space Shuttle training aircraft.
Source: Flight International
