LAAS could end up being overtaken by a combination of the FAA’s WAAS and Europe’s GPS equivalent, Galileo. While official speakers at last month’s U.S. Institute of Navigation satellite navigation conference in Portland, Ore., avoided directly questioning the future of LAAS, there were enough pointers in their formal presentations, coupled with informal discussions with industry attendees, to suggest that the FAA’s local-area augmentation system for Cat I GPS approaches might be stillborn, superseded by “foreign” signals from space.
Galileo is being developed by the Europeans as a worldwide, 30-satellite system whose signals will be identical to those of GPS, and will therefore complement the U.S. system. But being a more mature system–GPS is now in its 30th year–Galileo will incorporate newer technology and is expected to offer greater accuracy and integrity when it enters service around 2008.
