The European navigation system Galileo has made its first successful positioning of an object in the air. The system could already have the position on the ground, but now is in Dutch airspace a test for the informed.
There are currently four Galileo satellites in an orbit around the earth and this since march this year, frequently for the testing of positioning on the earth’s surface. In a test in the Dutch airspace is shown, however, that not only the positioning by latitude and longitude possible, but also with height. Thus, it is possible to with Galileo for example, an aircraft during its flight. It is the first time that Europe such positioning is performed without the aid of, for example, the gps navigation system of the USA.
The successful test was a month ago, taken with a Fairchild Metro-II-testvliegtuig at the height of the military airbase Gilze-Rijen. The plane was on its Galileo antenna on the top of the same recipients as that used for positioning on the ground. For the determination had the plane all four of the satellites ‘in view’. “In addition, there were also variables such as the speed of the vehicle, the time necessary for the first determination, the signal-to-ruisverstoring and the foutbereik mapped”, says the ESA. Both the Galileo system that is publicly going to be used as the more accurate authorities available system has been tested.
