Hughes Aircraft has signed a contract worth more than $483 million to continue development of the US Federal Aviation Administration's wide-area augmentation system (WAAS). The FAA says that Hughes, unlike original WAAS contractor Wilcox Electric, has the skill to design, develop, test and deliver the system with minimum cost, schedule and technical risk. In the USA, the WAAS will consist of 35 ground-reference stations, plus ground and satellite communications systems. It will provide integrity of global-positioning-system signals, in support of navigation, from oceanic through Category 1 approach operations.
Source: Flight International
