Current society requires to the aerial transport
system (since decades ago) the capability to fly, in a
safe manner, with unfavorable visibility conditions
(night flies, with fog, among the clouds). This
requirement makes the use of Radio Navigation
Aids critical for the Aerial Transport System.
Those NavAids could be seen as radiofrequency
emitters which emission structure and
geographic location allows the users (the flying
aircrafts) to compute its position and course in an
homogeneous way.
Since the functional objective of a NavAid is
to provide a radio-frequency emission with a known
structure (spectrum, timing, power...) in order to
identify this emission with the known site position,
it shall be demonstrated that this emission
corresponds with the standard. For this
demonstration, a set of parameters shall be
measured from the point of view of the final user.
I.e: they shall be measured from the air, which is
the place where they are used.
The current use of general purpose aircrafts
for flight inspection of NavAids provides the
authorities with the magnitudes to be inspected
measured in the same place that they are used but it
has a big inconvenience: its price.
This proposal has as its masterpiece the study
of the technological and regulatory constraints of
NavAids flight inspection using the UAS
technology. This use allows the separation of the
flight inspection in two segments:
I. Air Segment. Essential elements in the air,
antennas, sensors, data storage...
II. Ground Segment. All those elements not
strictly necessary for the ongoing
inspection, spare parts, capability to carry
personnel and ground equipment...
Thanks to this, several benefits are obtained:
With the proper use of telecommunications
the inspection, platform could be seen (from a
mission viewpoint) as a network of computers
interacting in a common mission.
The Air Segment could be resized, replacing
the existing aircrafts (large, expensive of acquire
and to maintain) by UAS adjusted to the needs in
Flight Inspection: to carry sensors in the area to
observe. This would bring flights the inherent
characteristics of these devices: lower cost of the
platform, lower operating costs, increased
availability...
Several aerial vehicles could be used
simultaneously, reporting to a single Ground
Segment station. By this provision, different areas
could be simultaneously inspected reducing the
number of coordinated actions with air navigation
and decreasing the time of the inspection Flight.
Summarizing: lower costs per flight test.Postprint (published version
