Is VOR navigation going to be obsolete to GPS navigation?

Question

Is VOR navigation going to be obsolete to GPS navigation?

Answer 1

Probably. Technology marches on. VOR replaced ADF and ADF replaced dead reckoning. Dead reckoning replaced the sextant.

Answer 2

VOR navigation is simple and relatively immune to sabotage, and for these reasons, it will (or should be) around for a long time. GPS is very easy to jam.



Unfortunately, some government authorities are not paying attention to the safety issues and seem rushed to retire as many VOR stations as possible. This will lead to some pretty grim situations when GPS fails or is sabotaged. And of course the motivation for sabotage will be much stronger once the bad guys know that there are no backups (such as VORs).



LORAN has already been retired, which was a mistake, for similar reasons. We can only hope that VORs will be maintained for a long time to come, or at least until something to back up GPS can come along.



Personally, I like to have as many navigation systems as possible in the cockpit, so that I always have backups for backups for backups. This is especially true for instrument flight, although I like to have navigational equipment even when flying visually. The more crosschecks you can do, the safer you are.

Answer 3

The fact is that GPS navigation can provide a tremendously accurate position (within 3 meters, for a WAAS GPS); much more accurate than a VOR could ever provide. For that reason, it has been suggested that VOR stations be decommissioned when they fail, as has already happened with the non-directional beacon (NDB) type of navigational aid.



However, GPS is a satellite-based navigational aid; as such, GPS signals can be affected by solar flares, by GPS signal jamming, GPS signal spoofing (this could be done by an enemy, and does occur already), etc. All of this leads to the requirement that airplanes carry a backup system of navigation that is based purely on ground-based navigational aids (ie, VOR, NDB, LORAN) so that if the satellite signal becomes unreadable or unreliable, the airplane has an effective and usable navigational system.



Hope this helps.

Answer 4

not anytime soon, because there is still quite a significant portion of countries that did not approve the GPS as a primary means of navigation.

Answer 5

Sure, there is "some purpose" - The INS items are "gyro units" - and furnish plane attitude data - The final 747s I flew had three INS items - and a pair of GPS items updating the position (longitude/latitude) of the 3 INS - The INS models are predominant inputs to the autopilot system - So, to fly from A to B, the 747 navigation method does it this way - There are 2 FMS flight administration approach to program the flight - The pilots enter knowledge into the FMS for the flight - route waypoints - the two FMS are receiving knowledge from the three INS - and 2 GPS most effective do one thing - time (clock) and position update - we don't even see a "GPS" in the flight deck - it's black boxes someplace and wires to the INS and FMS - earlier than the day of the GPS, the INS update was executed with VOR/DME - simply no as correct as GPS are - And the INS have been stored in "triple mix" - In case the GPS each "die" - 2 VOR/DME will update the three INS - (of course no replace over oceanic areas) - Then attaining a continent somewhere, the INS will be up to date - within the "historical days" without VOR/DME update, and GPS, our INS have been ok - They offered accurate navigation - The worst they'd be 1 nautical mile error after 1 hour flight - So, after a 6 hours flight without replace, we probably 6 miles "off" - however in follow we most effective have been 1 or 2 miles off - INS are accurate - .