Is the statement "navigation is made in today's commercial flight world primary with GPS" true?

Question

i mean, what else would there be for navigation? maybe INS (IRS) with the FMC, and VOR navigation, which is conventional and would not bring anything when over an ocean..?

Answer 1

For the MOST part, modern airliners have switched over to GPS as a primary means of navigation information- especially with consideration to newer aircraft that have been produced in the past 5-10 years.

That said, there are still a lot of aircraft out there that don't have GPS receivers on board. These aircraft still rely upon VOR navigation or FMS/INS/IRS systems.

Many aircraft (including modern aircraft) utilize many different means to determine location. Even aircraft that have GPS receivers (mine has two) use other sources of navigation to determine and cross check position information.

Primary means of navigation on today's airliners is typically through an FMS unit that is tied into each of these sources that provide position data to the FMS.

Some of the ways that position is determined:

GPS

DME/DME readings

VOR/DME readings

VOR/VOR readings

INS/IRU

LORAN

Dead Reckoning

Edit/Additional: In response to the post below, yes- there's a lot more to complex electronic navigation than what's in this thread. In fact, the technical and operating books for most navigation systems on glass aircraft are multi-volume...

In reality, the FMS Processing Unit takes information for a myriad of sources, including air data (airspeed, altitude, temperature, etc), GPS, Ground Based Navaids, internal reference systems, and calculated (dead reckoning) positions and compares the information as a whole. Using that information, the data processing units can then create a "zone of accuracy." Just as your position gets more accurate with more GPS satellites, an aircraft's position is more accurate with more navigation sources.

If one system is errant, the data processors can recognize that, and ignore the faulty information (as well as notify the flight crew).

In reality, there isn't any one "primary" system outside of the FMS. (IE the computer doesn't select one source). Instead, the FMS data compares and calculates a nav position solution by triangulating information from all of the above mentioned systems.

Answer 2

yes. i belive

Answer 3

Mostly...longer range aircraft use a GPS/IRS mix to ensure more accurate navigation.

Answer 4

The truth is a bit more complex than that but sure.

In reality, modern aircraft use GPS, a form of IRS, DME/DME logic from multiple VORTACs and a dead reckoning to monitor their position.  A computer can compare them all and select the one that is most accurate at any given point in time.

Most of the time, that will be a GPS signal, but in times when there is no RAIM (Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring) available one of the others (usually DME/DME) will be used instead.  ALL of those systems are used ALL of the time, the computer simply selects the one that is most accurate and uses its data to maintain navigational accuracy.

Answer 5

Simply put, yes. There are obviously mutiple backup technologies, but *navigation* (as opposed to instrument procedures) is largely GPS based today. Private aircraft, and Part 135 tansportation VERY rarely utilized VOR-based navigation (Victor airways) for enroute IFR navigation (maybe one time in my last 100 instrument flights was I unabl to get a 'GPS-direct' clearance). VORs and ILSs are obviously used a lot for approaches, but for navigation, it is largely a GPS world.

Answer 6

Those budding pilots who are hoping and praying that their airline job will not involve having to actually fly and navigate the plane are in for a terrifying disappointment.  

You will have to hand-fly the plane.  

You will have to navigate.  

You will be asked the direction and distance to an airport that has no radiobeacon.  

You will have to hand-fly approaches.  

You will have to land the airplane.          

In the airline service there are many aircraft with no RNAV equipment.  Do you think Northwest's DC-9s have RNAV?  

Electronic navigation is not required for transoceanic airline flights.

RNAV equipment is not required for a clearance direct.  A route (e.g. "direct")  clearance doesn't mention ( e.g. "GPS direct")  navigation equipment.