Abstract: A navigation and airport control and management method and system for aircraft and surface vehicles. The system incorporates the use of differential GPS to provide increased accuracy and robustness for aircraft and vehicles using GPS as the primary terminal area navigation system. An antenna is precisely located and identified with GPS compatible coordinate references. GPS signals are received with the antenna and supplied to a differential GPS base station. The base station calculates psuedorange and delta range corrections for each tracked satellite. Calculated differential corrections are then broadcast to vehicles in the local area using a radio transmitter. Vehicles receive the broadcast differential corrections and calculate differentially corrected position, velocity and time (PVT) information. This information is used on aboard the vehicle for navigational or automatic dependent surveillance purposes.

Abstract: An Airport Control and Management Method for use by an air traffic controller which provides for a GNSS compatible computer processing environment which supports airport control and management functions in the air and on the ground. The computer system provides for automation and a computer human interface supporting air traffic controller functions. The processing environment is based upon GNSS compatible position, velocity, time information and GNSS spatially compatible databases. The computer human interface combines the data entry role of issuing clearances with automated routing, conformance monitoring and lighting control functions. The system and methods utilize precise GNSS compatible zones, the Earth Centered Earth Fixed (ECEF) WGS-84 coordinate reference frame, GNSS compatible local coordinate frames such as local and state plane grids, travel path information management processes which allow for the intelligent control of airport lighting systems.