Maiden EGNOS flight trials in Eastern Europe

Maiden flight trials have recently been successfully conducted in Moldova using GMV’s magicSBAS solution. These trials form part of a GMV-led European Commission FP7 collaboration project.

In 2011 the European GNSS Agency (GSA) awarded GMV the EEGS2 project (EGNOS Extension to Eastern Europe). The main objective of the project is to demonstrate through flight trials the benefits of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) in areas of Eastern Europe where it is not yet available, like Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Moldova and Russia, and to prepare the civil aviation authorities and air navigation service providers for future use of the system.

The magicLPV system, developed under this project, enables LPV approaches (Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance) to be carried out using the signal generated by the magicSBAS application. This test environment allows any region of the world to analyze the air-navigation benefits to be obtained with deployment of a Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS). This signal is read by internet and transmitted by radio frequency in the vicinity of the airport, allowing LPV approaches to be made in places where SBAS is either completely unavailable or available only on a very limited basis.

Eight flights in all were carried out in various Moldovan airports, including Chișinău International Airport. Test results were highly satisfactory, demonstrating the simplicity of equipment configuration and operation, and the magnificent performance of the magicSBAS signal.

GMV will continue with these demonstrations in other countries of Eastern Europe.