New Navigation System Keeps Aircraft on Track

BAERI, in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Lab and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, recently completed the first test flights with a remarkable new navigation system called Soxnav. The system, using automated 3D steering guidance, aims to keep aircraft, at speeds up to 500 mph, “within just a few feet of its target track, and to keep it there better than 90% of the time,” according to John Sonntag, BAERI independent consultant co-developer of Soxnav.

Soxnav’s accuracy in navigation allows for more precise analysis of Earth’s surface using the Next Generation Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR-NG). These two technologies, working in conjunction, lead to advances in predicting changes in Earth’s topography and food and water supplies, thus assisting communities facing the consequences of natural disasters.