The Role of Inertial Navigation in Future Air Traffic Control Systems

Significant improvements in inertial system performance coupled with reductions in cost are anticipated during this decade as a result of low-cost, automated, precision-production techniques. This trend is also apparent in airborne digital computer technology. As a result, a new flight control system architecture is emerging in which the computer and the inertial system play major roles. This paper describes the emerging system architecture and discusses some potential improvements in Air Traffic Control stemming from the utilization of inertial data.