The recent history and background of the Channel Navigation Information Service (CNIS) have been well documented in this journal by my illustrious forebears, Captain Richard Emden and Commander James Neill. Whilst this paper describes some of the changes in the service since those papers were published, it may be appropriate to review the key events in the introduction of what was once a unique initiative, and remind the reader of the operational doctrine and philosophy of the system.

Aviation is becoming more and more reliant on information held in electronic databases for flight planning and for en route navigation use whilst airborne. Twenty or more years ago, aircraft were flight-planned along canned routes developed by specialist navigation departments with information derived from charts, flight guides and from the source Aeronautical Information Publications, the AIPS, themselves. The data was then output in the form of a paper flight plan. The move toward computerization occurred in the mid 1970s and the early systems relied on the construction of waypoint to waypoint routes. Today, aircraft are planned to fly on canned or random routes based on airway to airway segments dependent on characteristics derived from an aeronautical database. Though correlation with paper data exists, the industry has moved a significant way along the path to database dependence for ground-based flight planning. Moreover, the move towards reliance is not limited to the ground alone for, in the case of British Airways at least, all aircraft are equipped with some form of electronic navigation database. Few airlines, if any, with the notable exception of Swissair, have invested in the creation of a comprehensive global navigation database. The costs of creating, maintaining and verifying such a product are more than even large and relatively successful airlines are willing to pay. Instead, they buy in the required ground and air systems products from Jeppesen, Swissair, Racal and the rest. They procure a service secure in the knowledge that the data has been collated, verified and authenticated before publication and use. However, is this reliance misplaced perhaps?

Russia has had a quite unique development as a sea power. The 20th of October 1696 has been considered as the date of the Russian Fleet's creation when the supreme legislative body of Russia – the Boyar Duma – decreed that there should be a ship-building programme for the State's need. So, in 1996, we celebrate the tercentenary of the founding of the Russian Fleet (Figure 1).

This paper and the following 5 papers were presented at the Institute's NAV93 Conference on The Application of Advanced Systems. The conference was held in London in November 1993. The full Proceedings, containing some 42 papers, are available on application to the Director, price £30 for Members and £40 for Non-Members.

What's in a name? Well quite a lot really, and first of all, an explanation is required of our company name. PMT Limited is the trading name used for our core business area of North Staffordshire. The original full title was ‘The Potteries Motor Traction Company Limited’ but it is the abbreviation to PMT by which we have been known and loved for many decades – and who are we to argue with our customers? Under the terms of the 1985 Transport Act, we became one of the early management buyouts from the government-owned National Bus Company and chose to call the new company just PMT Limited.

Inmarsat commissioned the field study to be carried out by Signal Computing Ltd. in association with the Royal Greenwich Observatory. The study aimed to identify the commercial suitability of Wide Area Differential GPS (WADGPS) corrections. The corrections provided to users will be relayed via Inmarsat-3 geostationary satellites and are required to be valid over the footprint of an entire Inmarsat ocean region (approximately one third of the Earth's surface).

The study has been conducted within the Inmarsat Atlantic Ocean Region East. Trials took place over a five-month period to achieve a representative set of data. Six widely-distributed collection sites were used to ensure that the maximum duration of satellite data were received and that a representative model for atmospheric effects was obtained. Analysis is restricted to the use of GPS carrier and phase data obtained using the C/A code transmitted by Block II satellites only.

This paper presents the analysis of data collected during a four-day trial period. The ability to determine the GPS satellite ephemeris (independent of GPS broadcast ephemeris), Klobuchar model parameters tailored to the oceanic region, and satellite clock corrections using GPS data obtained from this limited deployment of collection sites is addressed. The primary degradation effects on stand-alone GPS positioning of Selective Availability (SA) are corrected using WADGPS, resulting in a significant improvement in position accuracy.

This paper describes a low-cost, in-vehicle route planning and driver information system being developed for use within the DRIVE PLEIADES (London–Paris corridor) project. The system integrates vehicle position information from a GPS receiver, traffic condition messages broadcast from both RDS-TMC and radio paging, and road network information from a route planning system. Instructions describing the route to be followed are presented to the driver on a dashboard-mounted LCD and in spoken form. The system tracks the calculated optimum route and gives instructions for the next section of the route to be covered. The optimum route is continuously recalculated, reacting to TMC messages and the vehicle's location.

Navigation systems on ocean-racing yachts have developed significantly over the last ten years, due to advances in communications systems, position fixing systems, and computer systems. This paper looks at the systems being used on boats competing in offshore racing events, discusses some of the shortcomings of existing technology, and also looks at areas of future development. We take the term ocean racing to cover events of such duration that the weather systems along the route are not able to be known in advance. Thus, for example, this excludes most Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) races, as these finish within a day or two of starting.

The achievement of the goals of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Future Air Navigation System (FANS) is essential for the continued development of the airline industry. A recently completed movement study for the North Atlantic Track area forecast that the previously anticipated aircraft movements for 2010 would now be achieved by 1999. Peak time capacity growth for the region is now reliant on the introduction of Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) scheduled for January 1997. Similarly, Europe had an all-too-evident capacity problem though some alleviation should follow from the introduction of precision area navigation (PRNAV) routeings in early 1998. However, despite the introduction of these developments, the restrictions on flow rates imposed by capacity variations in adjacent areas will remain. Quite obviously, an enhanced and fully capable Air Traffic Management (ATM) environment is required to solve many of the problems that commonly exist today. Nevertheless, more could be achieved through the application and exploitation of advanced navigation equipment such as the aircraft Flight Management Computer System (FMS) that is in widespread use today – a theme that will be returned to later in the paper.

The purpose of the study on which this paper is based was to establish whether there was a maritime requirement for a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) integrity monitoring and warning service in UK and Irish waters, and, if so, how best it could be established and operated.

The scope of the study extended to all maritime users: merchant ships; fishing vessels; pleasure craft; and all aspects of the voyage: harbour/harbour approach; coastal and ocean passage.

It has been assumed that the United States Global Positioning System (GPS) would be the system adopted, since it is the closest to an operational state. However, most of the technical considerations would apply equally to the Russian GLONASS or any future replacement system under international control.

The views expressed are those of the author, and should not be taken to represent the policies of the Department of Transport or any of the other bodies mentioned.

The objectives for a Global Navigation System (GNS) may be simply stated as the provision for all users, air, sea and land, wherever they may be on or above the surface of the globe, or beneath the sea, with the navigation means of going about their business in a safe and economic manner.

My background is that of a professional navigator but, although I have spent a lifetime at sea, my experience as a harbour master gathering knowledge about problems in inshore waters has been limited to only the last three years. My aim is to be moderately – but deliberately – provocative in order to help stimulate discussion, though I suspect, with the strongly held views on the subject, this may not be necessary. I do not suppose there is anything new in what I am going to say and far greater minds than mine have been hard at work for many years in seeking solutions to some of the problems I will outline. Given all the diverse interests in this subject, there will perhaps never be a perfect answer but one of the important things is that the dialogue is ongoing, and embraces many organizations and authorities. This paper reflects the problems we perceive in the area of the Solent and, although some issues can be read across in general terms for other areas in the UK, the Solent is a unique area with perhaps unique problems. So what better place to start-Before I outline the scope of the problem, I must stress that the views I expound in this paper are my personal views, and should not in any way be considered official MOD policy. I would also like to say (and some readers may take issue with this by the end) that I believe my views are impartial – my main task as Queen's Harbour Master is to protect the interests of the Ministry of Defence and, once that duty is fulfilled, I have no commercial or financial axe to grind. When I look at some of the maritime safety problems, I can do so free from hindrance or pressure.

For centuries, celestial navigation was the main method of determining a ship's position at sea, especially when sailing into more exotic areas. Later on, vast areas of the oceans were only covered by the Omega system and there was still every opportunity of finding a position by using the sextant. Nowadays, with GPS coverage worldwide, we consider celestial navigation as an interesting back-up.

The almost complete constellation of GPS satellites now provides excellent positional information for aircraft, with typical worst-case errors of the order of 100 metres. The low frequency waves used for Omega navigation have wavelengths of the order of 30 kilometres and thus, even in an aircraft moving at varying speeds up to around 500 km per hour, it is now a simple matter to measure VLF phase with a significance at the 1 degree level. This paper describes the use of GPS to provide accurate positional information to VLF receivers located on aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Airforce (RNZAF) en-route to Antarctica. The marked phase irregularities on signals from La Reunion and Argentina, observed north of the icecap in earlier studies using aircraft fitted with inertial navigation systems, have been confirmed and described with much greater precision. Smaller phase anomalies have also been observed on signals from Omega Australia and Omega Hawaii, whilst flying directly over the Antarctic icecap. The latter signal was previously regarded as unperturbed and used in earlier studies as a phase reference. Small-scale periodic variations of phase and amplitude have also been recorded on signals propagating from Omega Australia. These variations are considered to be caused by the reflection of the VLF waves at discontinuities in the height (e.g. mountains) or the lower boundary conductivity of the Earth-ionosphere waveguide. Reflections of smaller amplitude have also been observed flying over the open ocean before reaching Antarctica.

Over the past seventy years many advances have been made in the field of ship control. Early developments by Sperry and Minorsky on proportional controllers have led to today's modern control systems which have interfacing capabilities with position fixing equipment.

This paper presents a brief historical summary of the methods employed in ship control from early proportional devices through the range of adaptive systems and concludes with details of a possible future control method known as intelligent control.

Intelligent control consists of three methodologies: expert, fuzzy and neural. An investigation and comparison of the methodologies will present possible future control strategies.

This paper examines the frequency distributions of the ranges at which vessels take action to avoid collision. Published data from simulator exercises are employed. Both give-way and stand-on vessels are considered. Lognormal distributions fitted to the data are shown to be superior to those previously published. Underlying ‘causal’ models are developed which are capable of generating the observed distributions.