The Evolution of

Airway Lights and

Electronic
Navigation Aids
BY KAPT NOR SAZMI BIN
NOR AZMAN TUDM
OBJECTIVE
• TO EXPLAIN AND ELABORATE THE EVOLUTION OF
AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION AIDS FROM EARLY DEVELOPMENT
UNTIL PRESENT AND FUTURE PLANNING OF
MODERNIZATION.
SCOPE
• THIS LESSON WILL BE DELIVERED IN LECTURETTE.
• POWER POINT AND NPM MATERIALS WILL BE USE AS
TRAINING AIDS.YOU ARE FREE TO TAKE SHORT NOTES.
REFERENCE
• https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/aim_html/chap1_s
ection_1.html
• https://airandspace.si.edu
• https://www.icao.int/Meetings/AMC/MA/1998/rio/EXECSUM.pdf
• Open source from web
What is NAVAIDS?
• A navigational aid (NAVAID), also known as aid to navigation
(ATON), is any sort of signal, markers or guidance equipment which
aids the traveler in navigation, usually nautical or aviation travel.
Common types of such aids include lighthouses, buoys, fog signals,
and day beacons
Introduction
• In the early days of flight, there were no navigation aids to help pilots
find their way. Pilots flew by looking out of their cockpit window for
visual landmarks or by using automobile road maps.
The Early Years Of Air Transportation
• The first airline began flying only 11 years after the Wright brothers'
first flights in 1903. But that and other early airlines could not make
enough money to stay in business.
To demonstrate the potential of
transporting mail by air, the Post Office
approved a special air mail flight as part
of the festivities at an international air
meet on September 23, 1911, on Long
Island, New York.

Earle Ovington inside airplane. While

Ovington's flight was purely ceremonial,
it marked the first time an airplane
officially carried the mail.
Bonfires for navigation
• In 1919, U.S. Army Air Service Lieutenant Donald L. Bruner began
using bonfires and the first artificial beacons to help with night
navigation. In February 1921, an airmail pilot named Jack Knight put
this to the test with his all-night flight to Chicago from North Platte,
Nebraska. Knight found his way across the black prairie with the help
of bonfires lit by Post Office staff, farmers, and the public.
Beacons Replace Bonfires
• Beginning in 1923, the Post Office worked to complete a
transcontinental airway of beacons on towers spaced 15 to 25 miles (24
to 40 kilometers) apart, each with enough brightness, or candlepower, to
be seen for 40 miles (64 kilometers) in clear weather. On July 1, 1924,
postal authorities began regularly scheduled night operations over parts
of this route. In 1926, the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of
Commerce took over responsibility for building lighted airways. By
June 1927, 4,121 miles (6,632 kilometers) of airways had lights. By
1933, 18,000 miles (28,968 kilometers) of airway and 1,500 beacons
were in place.
Air Route Beacon
Rotating beacons like this one, developed by
the General Electric Company, were placed
16 kilometers (10 miles) apart along air mail
routes. They rotated once every 10 seconds,
and their powerful beams could be seen 60
kilometers (40 miles) away.
Compass Used on the First Scheduled Air
Mail Flight
On May 15, 1918, Lt. Howard P. Culver navigated
between Philadelphia and Belmont Park, near New
York City, using this liquid-filled compass installed in
his Curtiss Jenny.
Hazard of flying
Plane crashed in tree. Of the more than 200
pilots hired by the Post Office from 1918 to
1926, 35 died flying the mail. Fatalities
dropped after the first few years, but flying
the mail remained a dangerous - and
sometimes deadly - job.
By the mid-1920s the swashbuckling days of airmail operations had begun to pass. The lone pilot dressed in a leather
flight suit who sat in an open cockpit battling the elements to deliver the mail was romantic but inefficient. The Postal
Service began to focus on safety and reliability as well as on expanding operations. It established minimum lighting
requirements for all airmail stations: a 500-watt revolving searchlight, projecting a beam parallel to the ground to guide
pilots; another searchlight projecting into the wind to show the proper approach; and aircraft wingtip flares for forced
landings. It also prescribed that all landing fields should be at least 2,000 feet by 1,500 feet (610 meters by 457 meters) to
allow plenty of room for landings. As a final safety device, the requirement for a searchlight to be mounted on airmail
airplanes was appended to the Post Office's set of requirements.
Airfield Floodlight
Powerful mobile floodlights illuminated the
airfield at Fort Crook, Omaha.
Early Aircraft Technology
• Aircraft performance improved rapidly between 1911 and 1927, but aviation
technology was still fairly primitive. To boost aeronautical research, the U.S.
government created the NACA.
• Congress formed the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in
1915 to supervise and direct American aeronautical research. By the end of the
1920s, the NACA's efforts were bearing fruit.
• Pioneering research by the NACA and its successor, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), solved many of flight's most difficult problems and
greatly improved the performance and safety of all aircraft. The NACA/NASA
developed some of the most important technological innovations in air
transportation. This critical research continues today.
Airline Expansion and Innovation (1927 - 1941)
The Triumph of Click icon to add picture
Technology
Improvements in aircraft and aviation
technology played a key role in revitalizing
the struggling airline industry.

The Boeing 247, the world's first modern airliner.

Automatic
Direction Finder
Developed by the Sperry Gyroscope
Company, automatic direction finders (ADF)
were first installed on aircraft in the mid-
1930s.
Non-directional
beacon Click icon to add picture

9 May 1932: At McCook Field, Ohio,

Captain Albert Francis Hegenberger, Air
Corps, United States Army, flew the very first
solo instrument approach and landing, using a
system which he had developed.
Radio Transmitter
Click icon to add picture

This was the first lightweight radio

transmitter built for use on aircraft.
The Beginning of
Air Traffic Control
As the popularity of air travel grew, so did the
need for better air traffic control along the
nation's air routes and especially around
airports.

The first control tower to use ground-to-air and air-to-ground

radio communication was built in 1930 at Cleveland Airport.
Navigation by
Radio
New navigation techniques were needed to
allow aircraft to fly reliably and safely at
night and in bad weather. In the 1920s the
first low-frequency radio range beacon
experiments were conducted along National
Air Transport's New York-Chicago route. By
February 1931, the entire New York to San
Francisco route was equipped with radio
range stations.

In December 1935, the airlines established the first Airway

Traffic Control Center at Newark, New Jersey.
Decca Navigator
Decca was developed in the 1940s for ships,
but was migrated for use by helicopters and
other aircraft after WWII. Each Decca system
used a 'chain' of 3 or 4 radio transmitters,
achieving a range of up to 400NM in the day,
and 250NM at night. But with limited range
and range errors (especially at night), the
final Decca chain was shut down in 2001.
Radar and
Precision Landing
Systems
Radar-"radio detecting and ranging"-was
developed by the British in the 1930s and
widely used during World War II. By war's
end, two precision landing systems were
available for civil use: Ground Controlled
Approach (GCA), which used radar, and
Instrument Landing System (ILS), which
used radio transmissions.

Ground controller monitors radar to guide aircraft to land.

Loran-C Click icon to add picture

Loran-C, which gained popularity in the

1970s, used a network of land-based radio
beacons to create a long-range and highly
accurate navigation system. But its fate was
sealed by GPS as well. While Loran-C is still
operated, many stations around the world
have been shut down, or are the process of
being decommissioned.

Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter

OMEGA
OMEGA, which became operational in 1971,
was the first global radio navigation system.
It enabled aircraft to navigate using very low-
frequency radio signals around the world.
There were 8 OMEGA transmitters placed
around the globe. The OMEGA system was
shut down in 1997 due to the widespread use
of GPS, but one of its stations in La Moure,
ND, was converted to a US Navy submarine
communication station.
Current Technology
Celestial Click icon to add picture
Navigation
It's one of the oldest forms of navigation, and
one of the first navigation aids used by
transport aircraft. Celestial navigators use a
device called a sextant to determine the angle
between a known star and the horizon. By
using the angle, plus the time it was
measured, you can calculate your position.
Very-High-Frequency
Omnidirectional Click icon to add picture
Radio Range (VOR]
VORs were first used in the 1940s, and
they're still one of the most common radio
navigation systems. VORs quickly took
popularity over NDBs with their distinct
advantages: 360 courses 'TO' and 'FROM' the
station, greater accuracy, and less
interference.
Inertial navigation
system Click icon to add picture

Originally developed for rockets, INS

systems started to show up in the 1940s, with
the German V2 rocket housing one of the first
successful systems. Completely self-
contained, INS systems use a series of
accelerometers and gyroscopes to determine
their position. In the 1960s, INS reached
widespread usage in civilian and military
aircraft for worldwide navigation.

Inertial navigation unit of French IRBM S3.

Satellite navigation
A satellite navigation or satnav system is a
system that uses satellites to provide
autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows
small electronic receivers to determine their
location (longitude, latitude, and
altitude/elevation) to high precision (within a
few centimeters to metres) using time signals
transmitted along a line of sight by radio from
satellites.
Future Development
Introduction of
CNS/ATM
Overview of CNS/ATM
Communications, navigation, and surveillance systems, employing digital
technologies, including satellite systems together with various levels of
automation, applied in support of a seamless global air traffic management
system.
The need for change: limitations of legacy
technologies
Advantages of modern CNS/ATM
technologies
Components of CNS/ATM

The relationship between the various components of

communication, navigation, surveillance and air traffic
management systems can be seen in the following diagram.
Communication
Radio

Aircraft can reply to ATC with a standard format message or in free text. Messages from a controller normally
follow a standard format, with response required to most messages. CPDLC’s advantages include:

• reduced congestion of voice channels

• fewer communication errors
• lower workload for pilots and controllers.
Navigation
• Performance-based navigation (PBN) is the ‘N’ in CNS. PBN
standards require a particular level of navigation accuracy.
Surveillance
• The S in CNS stands for surveillance, such as automatic dependent
surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B).
Air traffic management
• The main air traffic management benefit of CNS is reduced aircraft
separation in controlled airspace. Aircraft can now be operated closer
together with no compromise to safety. Separation standards in
oceanic airspace have reduced from 180 nm to 50 nm and then to 30
nm, with the prospect of satellite-based ADS-B systems allowing
minimums of less than 15 nm.
Benefits
The main benefits of CNS/ATM are:
• increased aircraft capacity, especially in congested airspace
• increased schedule flexibility
• better flight path efficiency
• less disruption due to delays and diversions
• increased efficiency from reduced separation minimum.
Reduction in
distance and
elevation
SUMMARY
Aviation is one of the most rapidly develop sector, from this slide we
can conclude that development of technology in aviation is very fast and
we as aviator must be ready to learn and adapt new technology that
arise, so we are not falling behind.