2015 3/23 ELoran coming back?

[BillTIZ]

One of the loran master stations near Searchlight, Nevada has been dismantled.

 

[weirdjim]

. The FAA is looking at things like DME-DME and other forms of backup navigation.

Oh, dear grief. DME was a dead technology in the late 60s and with good reason. Heaven forfend it should resurrect itself.

Jim

 

[Brad Z]

Personally, I think eLoran should have rebranded itself with a new name. The "loran" part seems to be an obstacle in the minds of many, both here and in Washington.

Interestingly, the proliferation of UAS may help make the case for resurrection of the eLoran program. Without a pilot on board, pilotage is difficult for large long range UAS. A ground based backup to GPS that works at all altitudes is a virtual requirement for safe operations.

 

[Brad Z]

what are we looking at now? eLoran approaches?

Nope, just another source for RNAV,

 

[Henning]

You're right..there is no WAAS equivalent with eLoran. But we are talking about the system's ability to recover from a major disruption and get everyone on the ground, not day-to-day eLoran operations for a protracted period.

Bob

Yeah, well, it may be protracted. It's ok since we still have ILS for aviation. If we lose 10-12 satellites out of the constellation, that will take a bit to recover from, especially since we will likely be trying to recover a whole lot of transformers at the same time.