The original paper, entitled Flight Planning Before Computers 1946–1959, was written by Mr D. Bulstra in 1995. Written from a civilian operator's point of view, it includes very full explanations of the principles upon which the flight planning techniques were based, including mathematical derivations, examples of meteorological charts, and tables and graphs of aircraft performance. The abridging author has aimed to produce a short and accessible paper that explains the concepts without necessarily involving the reader in further complexities, while departing as little as possible from Mr Bulstra's framework and wording. For those who wish to look more deeply into the subject, the original paper can be seen in the Cundall Library of the Royal Institute of Navigation (Ref. 400.01.14).

This, and the following three papers, were first presented at GNSS 2000, the Third European Symposium on Global Navigation Satellite Systems held in Edinburgh, Scotland from 1st to 4th May 2000.

This paper presents the methodology and a practical implementation approach to perform GNSS Safety Assessment and Certification with due consideration of the satellite navigation system users. It places Galileo GNSS in a total system that includes vehicles, on-board equipment, crews and traffic controllers and defines the necessary organisation for implementing safety analyses right from the early design phases of navigation systems. Civil aviation has very demanding requirements based on objectives for air navigation safety. It is much better organised on a worldwide basis than other GNSS users and is considered in this paper as the leading study case. Some methods are then proposed to build a bridge between all user organisations and to set up a common approach to certification.

To encourage compatibility of national and global precise positioning of GPS surveys in Great Britain, Ordnance Survey is providing access at no cost to the new National GPS Network, via a website first available in June 2000. By requiring the use of this infrastructure to provide ETRS89 control station coordinates at a stated level of precision, survey clients can be assured that any commissioned survey will be precisely consistent with any other, even if the two are widely spaced in location and time. All such surveys will also be precisely consistent with the Ordnance Survey large-scale base mapping, using the precise National Grid Transformation and National Geoid Model. This is now the Ordnance Survey recommended ‘standard method’ of creating new National Grid coordinate datasets, eventually to replace completely the traditional national control networks of triangulation stations and height bench marks.

This paper discusses the design, development and operation of two tools intended for B-RNAV operations: the enhanced AUGUR system, which was commissioned by EUROCONTROL, and the Global Positioning System (GPS) Performance Monitoring System (GPMS), commissioned by National Air Traffic Services Ltd. (NATS). Both tools were implemented by STASYS Ltd., with support from Delft University on AUGUR algorithm issues. AUGUR, a Predictive GPS Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) system, performs complex calculations and provides an easy-to-interpret Internet-based interface to aid aircraft operators with the use of GPS. Enhancements to AUGUR have been implemented to meet user requests and the requirements of a future Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) Temporary Guidance Leaflet (TGL) on the airworthiness and operational approval for the use of Area Navigation (RNAV) systems in European airspace designated for Precision RNAV (P-RNAV) operations. The GPMS records output from a variety of GPS UE, has a real-time interface, performs simulations based on logged data, and permits remote analysis. The work carried out consisted of specifying a system to meet the safety study recommendations, choosing hardware, analysing interface requirements, and developing systems and software. These tools are now in place to help with GPS B-RNAV operations, and provide a layer of safety for both en-route flight and GPS-based non-precision approach operations in European airspace.

For the last two years a large collaborative project has been taking place at the University of Nottingham to investigate novel strategies for the implementation of GNSS within all phases of marine navigation in UK waters. The project, which was recently completed, was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The project also received financial support from a prestigious team of collaborators that included the UK Ministry of Defence Hydrographic Office, Trinity House Lighthouse Service, Northern Lighthouse Board, Commissioners for Irish Lights and the Port of London Authority. The first phase of this project was reported in the Journal in May 1999 (Ashkenazi et al., 1999); this paper presents an update of the progress of the project over the last year.

This paper was first presented at the NAV99/ILA28 Conference on ‘Loran-C, Satellite and Integrated Systems for the 21st Century’ held at Church House, Westminster, London from 1–3 November 1999.

The introduction of modern navigation systems highlights the need for efficient tools to assess the possible impact of these systems on the safety levels currently associated with the operation of a ship. In recent years this has led to investigation of the advanced safety/risk assessment techniques already applied in other industrial sectors, with encouraging results. The scope of this paper is to show a quantified safety assessment methodology that can be applied while designing or retrofitting navigation systems. The methodology adopted is the result of the review of the IMO Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) technique and comprises the development of a functional analysis, a hazard identification analysis and a risk assessment. The paper provides details on a specific application of this model to an integrated navigation system. This application is included in the work performed under the ATOMOS II research project, partly funded by the DGVII Directorate of the European Commission within the 4th Framework Programme in the field of Maritime Transport.

This paper was first presented at a Symposium on ‘Advanced Moving-Map Displays’ held on the 3rd and 4th of August 1999 by the US Naval Research Laboratory Detachment at the NASA Stennis Space Centre, Mississippi, and is reproduced in modified form with the kind permission of the NRL Commanding Officer, Captain Douglas H. Rau USN.

Wavelets and wavelet transforms can be used for vector-map data compression. The choice of wavelet, the level of decomposition, the method of thresholding, the height of the threshold, relative CPU times and file sizes, and reconstructed map appearance were investigated using the Wavelet Toolbox of MATLAB. Quantitative error measures were obtained. For two test vector-map data sets consisting of longitude and latitude points, compressions of 35 to 50 percent (1·5[ratio ]1 to 2[ratio ]1) were obtained with root-mean-square errors less than 0·003 to 0·01° longitude/latitude for wavelet packet decompositions using selected wavelets.

In many combined GPS/cellular radio receivers, the cellular radio segment is not used to aid the positioning process. Recently proposed Assisted-GPS systems use the communications channel to improve receiver time-to-first-fix and the GPS tracking sensitivity. However, the cellular radio signals can also be used for locating the receiver. Studies using the GSM mobile communication system have shown positional accuracy comparable to that of SA-degraded GPS. To achieve maximum performance (accuracy, availability, integrity and reliability), both sources of positioning information, GPS and cellular, should be regarded as sensor inputs to an integrated navigation system. In this way the benefits of both systems can be fully exploited to produce an optimal navigation solution.

At present, the whole shipping industry is concerned about safety of navigation. In particular, attention is focused on High Speed Craft. There has been a sharp increase in numbers of this kind of vessel, which primarily carries passengers but is also known to carry goods. Some units can reach speeds of over 45 knots with capacity for 900 passengers. These passengers have a basic right to life and their means of transport should obviously follow all safety codes, regulations and IMO resolutions. This paper describes the development of a monitoring system that could automatically transmit safety parameters and position from the ship to a management control centre. Digital and analogical alarms, ship condition readings and other safety-related parameters may be recorded and transmitted in near real- time using the latest communications and positioning technologies.

Distance and course to steer along part of a great ellipse can be readily determined with the use of vector analysis and differential geometry. Although the resulting integral for distance is not amenable to direct solution, it can nevertheless be handled efficiently and quickly by available commercial mathematical software. In this paper, a method of computing distance along with course to steer is presented and is one that has been prepared with the syntax of a particular commercial mathematics package in mind. This approach was intended to appeal to the navigator who is interested in the mathematics of navigation, and who nowadays solves his problems with a portable computer.

This paper outlines a technique to represent terrain using tree structures, based on Morton ordering to avoid the use of pointers. This approach enables terrain data to be organised in a hierarchical form affording a trade-off between the speed of access to the terrain database and resolution of the terrain data extracted from the tree. A set of database access algorithms is developed that form the basis of path extraction needed for real-time mission management. Several examples are presented to illustrate the performance of the routeing algorithms developed in the paper.

This paper argues for the use of landmarks (for example, traffic lights, churches, petrol stations) within the turn-by-turn visual and voice directions given by in-vehicle navigation systems. Such prominent features of the driving environment are consistent with basic human navigational strategies, are valued by drivers, and have been shown significantly to improve the usability of electronic in-car navigational aids. For future systems actively to include such information, it is critical that (a) only ‘good’ landmarks are used, (b) such landmarks are presented to the driver in the most appropriate way, and (c) the practical needs of industry are fully accounted for.

This paper considers the development of three autopilots for controlling the yaw responses of an autonomous underwater vehicle model. The autopilot designs are based on the adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), a simulated, annealing-tuned control algorithm and a traditional proportional-derivative controller. In addition, each autopilot is integrated with a line-of-sight (LOS) guidance system to test its effectiveness in steering round a series of waypoints with and without the presence of sea current disturbance. Simulation results are presented that show the overall superiority of the ANFIS approach.

This paper was presented at ETT99/SATNAV99 Conference, held by DGON/NIN in Potsdam, Germany on 9th November 1999.

In the foreseeable future, Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) will be installed aboard all sea-going ships larger than 300 g.r.t. These new devices broadcast data at regular and short intervals, by means of which the ship can be identified and tracked. Further data can be transmitted to provide additional information on the ship's motion, navigational status, intended voyage and cargo. The transmissions can be received by every interested party having an appropriate receiver both at sea and ashore. With these capabilities, AIS adds a new information quality to maritime traffic, which is relevant not only for ship/ship but also for VTS/ship interaction. This paper describes the genesis of the new systems and their operational and technical aspects. It continues with a discussion of their standard and extended applications and their – so far – unexploited potential. Where relevant, the results of R&D work and practical tests are mentioned.

The objective of this paper is to study the possible use of meteo-marine forecasts for correct management of ships' ballast water, in order to improve the safety of navigation, having due consideration to the economical costs (wrong load/unload of water) and the possible performance impacts that could be generated. The analysis has been carried out verifying the operative forecasts used for crew training in the Italian yacht Consorzio Prada for the America's Cup 2000 and issued in the period April–July 1999. Studying the forecasts' quality, situations of potential incorrect load of ballast water have been examined together with the potential negative effects. It has been demonstrated that an accurate weather forecast is of paramount importance to safe navigation without economic loss while recognising the related performance aspects.

This paper offers a precise and almost final solution to one of the most debated problems connected with the astrogeodetic ‘fix’ by azimuth differences. The rectangular and linear solution on the gnomonic plane, tangent to the celestial globe and the dead reckoning position, enables the use of azimuth differences and is connected to Pothenot's solution. Thus this problem may be solved with simple linear algorithms that require neither differential modes, nor the introduction of the unknown origin error.

Phil Steele's prècis of Dries Bulstra's paper on flight planning prompts me to recall flight planning procedures on the North and South Atlantic in the days of RAF Ferry Command. The sparsity of radio-navigation aids, coupled with few weather reports and even fewer diversion airfields made flight planning and en-route navigation an interesting challenge. RAF Ferry Command rose to the challenge, aided by volunteer captains from American civilian airlines. The catalyst for this success lay in decisions taken in 1935.