A series of flight tests were performed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Technical Center at the Miami/Tamiami, Florida Airport, to compare the course quality of an instrumented landing system (ILS) with a collected Microwave Landing System (MLS). The Technical Center's test bed MLS was transported to and collected with the commissioned category I ILS on runway 9R at Tamiami. The flight data that was collected indicate that the MLS has less scalloping than the ILS and the MLS azimuth is unaffected by overflight interference. Keywords: Flight control systems; Air navigation; Landing aids; Instrument landing; Instrument flight. (kt).
At the request of the Microwave Landing System (MLS) Program Office, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Technical Center conducted an operational demonstration and flight test of the MLS at Miami/Tamiami, Florida Airport. The demonstration/flight test was conducted in conjunction with an MLS seminar jointly sponsored by U.S. Department of Transportation, FAA, and Transport Canada Aviation Group. The Technical Center's MLS test bed, consisting of 1.5 beamwidth elevation station and a 2 beamwidth azimuth station, was transported to, and temporarily installed at the Miami/Tamiami Airport on runway 9R, collocated with the commissioned instrument landing system (ILS). Additionally, an E-Systems preproduction model precision distance measuring equipment (DME/P) transponder was also installed adjacent to the runway 9R localizer equipment shelter. On March 29, 1989, seven 1-hour demonstration and data collection flights were flown for over 60 aviation, industry, and US and international Government attendees. By careful siting of the MLS on runway 9R, proportional MLS signal coverage was also obtained in the approach regions of runways 9L and 13. By utilizing an FAA Technical Center designed and fabricated MLS area navigation (RNAV) computer on board the demonstration aircraft, precision approaches were flown not only to runway 9R, but also to runways 9L and 13. This demonstrated the tremendous flexibility and operational capability of MLS. The MLS signal-in-space on runway 9R met Category II ILS tolerances. No degradation of the ILS performance due to the MLS collocation was detected during this demonstration.
A selection of annotated references to unclassified reports and journal articles that were introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system and announced in Scientific and technical aerospace reports (STAR) and International aerospace abstracts (IAA).
In support of Project No. 5 of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Microwave Landing System (MLS) Demonstration and Evaluation Program, Comparison of MLS and Instrument Landing System (ILS) Performance, the FAA technical Center installed an MLS elevation station collocated with the ILS basic end-fire glide slope (EFGS) serving runway 23 at Yeager Airport, Charleston, West Virginia. The EFGS is the only type of ILS glide slope antenna that will provide operationally usable performance at the site because of limited flat terrain in front of the antenna and a valley with rising hills in the approach to the runway. The FAA Technical Center's MLS test bed, consisting of a 1.5 deg beamwidth elevation station and a 2 deg beamwidth azimuth station, was transported to, and temporarily installed at Yeager Airport on runway 23. Only the MLS elevation was collocated with the commissioned ILS EFGS. The azimuth station was not collocated with the localizer for siting reasons. The MLS installation did not affect the performance of the ILS as verified by a flight check by the Atlantic City Flight Inspection Field Office (FIFO). During ground tracked partial orbits and inbound level runs and approaches, both ILS and MLS data were simultaneously recorded in the FAA Technical Center instrumented aircraft, a Convair-580, N-49. End-Fire Glide Slope (EFGS), Instrument Landing System (ILS), Microwave Landing System (MLS), Yeager Airport, Charleston, WV.
