Area navigation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Area Navigation (RNAV) is a method of air navigation that allows an aircraft to choose any course within a network of navigation beacons, rather than navigating directly to and from the beacons. This can conserve flight distance, reduce congestion, and allow instrument flight plans into airports without beacons.

In the United States, RNAV was developed in the 1960s, and the first such routes were published in the 1970s. In January 1983, the Federal Aviation Administration revoked all conterminous United States RNAV routes due to findings that aircraft were using internal inertial navigation methods rather than the ground-based beacons.

Two aviation RNAV systems being used simultaneously aboard a light general aviation aircraft

[edit] External links

• RNAV Tutorial - Florida International University