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A device that automatically measures the angular separation of stellar observations with respect to a reference platform. It is also referred to as an astrotracker.By utilizing the star tracker in conjunction with a precise time reference…

A member of the rho-theta family of air navigation systems which define an aircraft's position by its distance and bearing to a single beacon. Such systems inherently answer the navigator's questions of “in what direction” and “how far,” without…

A discipline that combines the means to know the location and heading of an aircraft with respect to some map or coordinate system, with guidance which means steering the aircraft along some desired path toward a destination. The construction of the…

A form of navigation that determines position of a craft by advancing a previous position to a new one on the basis of assumed distance and direction moved. The name probably stems from the early practice of determining speed by throwing overboard a…

Equipment used for determining the direction from which a received signal is being radiated. Direction finders serve a variety of applications. Direction finders can be used for navigation purposes to determine the heading of a vehicle relative to a…

An internationally standardized navigation system which allows an aircraft to measure its distance from a selected ground-based beacon. Such beacons are used throughout the world by all airliners, most of the military aircraft of the West, and a…

Systems that locate suitably equipped users by means of measurements made by electronic sensors. Typical measurements include distance or bearing from a vehicle to a known point, or direct determination of the present position of the vehicle in a…

A system carried on many aircraft to warn the pilot that the aircraft may be in danger of inadvertent contact with the ground. It is intended to reduce the occurrence of controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT) accidents, in which aircraft with no…

A process of navigation by which a destination is approached by keeping some navigation parameter constant. In its early uses, the most commonly chosen parameter was the relative bearing from the vehicle to destination as determined from a signal…

A navigation system that produces hyperbolic lines or surfaces of position by measuring the difference in times of reception (or phase difference) between radio signals from two or more synchronized transmitters. Such systems require the use of a…