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Inertial navigation and its impact on future avionics systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

W. H. McKinlay*
Affiliation:
Ferranti Ltd

Extract

It is now over twenty years since the first experimental inertial navigation system was built and tested in America, by MIT. Over that period inertial navigation has come of age as a technology, and many thousands of inerital systems are in service in civil and military aircraft.

Ferranti Limited have been active in this field over 15 years, developing and producing both the basic inertial instruments and complete systems for a range of aircraft and space applications. The first system was produced for the TSR-2, which was cancelled at the prototype stage. But a first generation production system has now been in RAF service for some time. A second generation system, now at an advanced stage of test and development, will equip the European Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA). A version of the same system has been adopted in Japan.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1976 

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References

This paper was presented at a Symposium ‘Avionics—Today and Tomorrow’ organised by SERT and SLAET in July 1974.

The author has asked us to point out that the original aim of this paper was to inform and interest those having a limited prior background in inertial navigation, and that this aim has been preserved in reviewing the paper for publication. It does not necessarily reflect the latest state of the art and the technical treatment originally adopted has been left unchanged.