The content of this paper is based on my own experience of international cooperation in the field of navigation. For this reason, the presentation is divided into three parts and these are related to the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) and to the International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN).

This paper formed the 1990 Anderson Memorial Lecture and was presented to the Bristol Channel Branch on 22 February. In developing his theme, George King concentrated very much on the characters of the navigators concerned with six extraordinary exploits, but without losing sight of the navigation itself. The following version is necessarily much abridged and the editor has reluctantly omitted the detail of fascinating accounts of the expedition commissioned by Thomas Jefferson to explore the American West, the epic open boat voyage by Ernest Shackleton in the Antarctic in 1916, the first solo air crossing of the Atlantic by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, and the spectacularly successful Apollo 11 mission in 1969. The full text of George King's meticulously researched and brilliantly written paper is available to members from the Institute, price £3.

As can be seen by the examples given below, design and planning problems related to ship-handling techniques increasingly rely on the use of ship-handling simulators.(i) Design and planning of port and harbour facilities with respect to the layout and dimensions of channels, turning basins, breakwaters, jetties, etc.(ii) Assessment of the ship manoeuvrability required to ensure safety in given port and harbour conditions.(iii) Establishment of proper ship-handling procedures required to ensure safety under given conditions.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) will be an extremely high-performance satellite-based navigation system which is expected to provide a sole means air navigation service for most aeronautical flight phases. It will be particularly suitable for ‘en route’, ‘terminal’ and ‘non-precision approach’ phases, thus providing substantial savings on aircraft operating costs.

However, GPS has three major disadvantages for civil aviation: (1) Insufficient system integrity, since satellites can transmit erroneous information for two hours before being repaired or neutralized. In such an event, the many simultaneous users of the satellite that has lost its integrity can derive false positions and remain unaware of the problem. (2) Availability constrained by the limited number of satellites. Users are then unable to obtain a position fix or else obtain a result with significantly degraded performance. (3) Deliberate spatio-temporal degradation (selective availability) of system performance, the characteristics of which are not fully known or defined.

Many solutions to these problems have been put forward. One concept uses the redundancy of the GPS system itself (receiver autonomous integrity monitoring). Another set of solutions is based on complementary information from autonomous navigation equipment (altimeter, clock, inertial system) or external navigation systems already available or being developed (Omega, Loran-C, GLONASS). A third type of solution is to implement a system by which to monitor the status of the GPS satellites and broadcast the information to users.

This paper reports on the different techniques put forward and uses different qualitative criteria (technical feasibility, cost, political independence, etc.) to assess their suitability for civil aviation applications. The comparison leads to the recommendation of a system to monitor the status of the GPS satellites and broadcast the information to users. The characteristics of such messages would be as similar as possible to those of GPS messages.

Safety of life at sea and assistance to persons in distress are matters of great importance to seafarers, shipowners and maritime administrations and have been addressed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) since its foundation.

This paper is the third chapter of a series on Air Navigation Systems during the period from the early oceanic flights and the inception of commercial aviation to the introduction of INS in civil aircraft. Some initial comments on the paper are included in the Forum section of this issue of the Journal. Further comments would be welcomed by the author and the editor.

The history of the first 10 years of the Channel Navigation Information Service (CNIS) from its inception in 1972 has been well-documented in Captain Richard Emden's three papers published in the Journal of the Royal Institute of Navigation. While the purpose of this paper is to discuss the period of consolidation following these first 10 years, it is perhaps appropriate to set out briefly the factors leading up to the introduction of CNIS in the Dover Strait, the operating philosophy and some of the major milestones along the way.

Although INMARSAT's founding charter includes provision for a space segment for radiodetermination, the organization has, to date, concentrated on the telecommunications aspects of its mission. However, a satellite radiodetermination (including radionavigation) services development programme has been under way for about two years, and includes both study and experimental activities. Early studies performed for INMARSAT on both passive and active radiodetermination provided a number of significant conclusions, including the rather obvious but important fact that all satellite radiodetermination concepts possess two common elements: the forward transmission (broadcast) of a relatively wideband timing/ranging signal, and the precise tracking in orbit of the satellites.

In a strong wind, groundspeed may vary appreciably during a turn, as, for example, in the case of a landing after a U-turn preceding the localizer intercept. Such conditions are critical for maximum use of the runway, and render human estimation of aircraft motion extremely difficult.

This paper summarizes the tests conducted using a ground-based 4D-guidance program, developed to assist the air traffic controller in maintaining the predicted landing-time sequence with an accuracy better than 10 seconds for each arrival.

This, and the following three papers were presented at the Royal Institute of Navigation meeting ‘Management of Air Traffic Flow in Europe' on 15 November 1989.

One of the growth industries in Europe is the production of articles in newspapers and programmes on radio and television which deal with European air traffic control. They usually have titles like, ‘The Crisis in ATC’, or ‘European Air Traffic Meltdown’. Jane's Airport Review, in October 1989, had an article entitled ‘Wanted: One ATC System for Europe’.

In many aviation and nautical contexts, single manning is common. Some aircraft and some vessels are designed for single manning with no choice. Others can have multiple or single manning, usually depending on such factors as operational requirements, mission objectives, intended human roles, task demands, workload, envisaged mission duration, and environmental conditions.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting experimental programmes to support introduction of satellite navigation and communications services into the air traffic control system during the 1990 time period. This work programme is closely related to the activities that have been conducted by the ICAO Future Air Navigation Systems (FANS) Committee and will result in development of standards for avionics systems and services for the Global Positioning System (GPS), as well as digital voice and digital data link services. This paper summarizes the FAA programmes supporting the introduction of the new satellite services.

The concept of differential GPS has been under study, test and refinement for about 10 years. Operational use of differential GPS is now practical, effective and highly reliable. Refinements to the concept of differential GPS have evolved over this period, several of which have been reported by Trimble Navigation personnel. It is now reasonable to conclude that the ‘second generation’ of differential GPS has arrived, with a collection of technical improvements and features that make its use even more accurate, robust and reliable.

The paper has defined the objectives of flow-management, the techniques it uses, its present organization and the existing problems. It has covered the plans which have been made to radically improve the service and has described the final goal as we can see it from this point, together with the interim development phases.

It is over 10 years since this ill-fated Fastnet Race claimed the lives of fifteen yachtsmen and the total loss of five yachts. A total of twenty-four crews abandoned their yachts and in all, 136 people were saved by being winched into helicopters and taken on board merchant and naval ships as well as other yachts. Some eighteen yachts needed the assistance of lifeboats because they had lost their rudders.

The situation today can be described as very frustrating for a variety of reasons. Air traffic flow-management (ATFM) has dominated the scene for many years since its conception in 1980. At that time, the principles of ATFM were directed at ensuring that temporary or isolated sector overloads could be handled by ATC and only when broad, prolonged overloads were expected was ATFM activated. Today, we have the reverse situation, where ATFM is active throughout 16 h or more during each day. The system as such was never intended or planned to cope with such a burden and the results are seen in a variety of forms, including departure delays as shown in Fig. 1.

In 1983, the Netherlands proposed to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) at the 48th Session of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) that the Organization should place on the work programme a study of a worldwide satellite navigation system for marine use.

Piloting large vessels in increasingly congested waterways is no simple task. As in many ‘decision-making under uncertainty’ scenarios, masters, mates and pilots engaged in piloting are inundated with much information and required to make crucial decisions in real time. Piloting is also an inherently judgmental activity. Pilots and ships' captains invariably develop heuristics for transiting particular waterways. As vessels become larger, cargoes more hazardous, and the waterways more congested, decision aid technology is being considered to improve piloting decision-making. This paper describes one approach to providing improved on-board decision support to masters, mates on watch, and pilots navigating in restricted waters. We discuss (1) the use of cognitive decision aids in piloting, (2) the design of such a decision aid developed for New York harbour, (3) simulator experiments evaluating the expert system, and (4) plans to apply the approach and ‘lessons learned’ to the development of an expert system for tankers transiting the Gulf of Alaska.

This paper attempts to challenge some of the principles on which en-route airspace is presently allocated, whilst pointing out the practical difficulties of implementing any alternative strategy. The paper does not discuss airport capacity limitations and terminal area problems, although these also contribute to restrictions on traffic flow.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) offers an absolute positioning accuracy of 15 to 100 metres. Inertial navigation complements GPS in that it provides relative positioning and is totally self-contained. These two positioning sensors are ideally suited for system integration for although there is not necessarily an improvement in accuracy, the integration of GPS with inertial navigation systems (INS) does enable an increase in system performance.