Story ID: 
FAA Certifies Aviation’s First IFR WAAS Receiver
By: Stephen Pope
Caption: The FAA has certified an IFR WAAS receiver developed by UPS Aviation Technologies, the key ingredient in a forthcoming line of satellite navigation equipme
Word Count: 186
The FAA has certified an IFR WAAS receiver developed by UPS Aviation Technologies, the key ingredient in a forthcoming line of satellite navigation equipment from the Salem, Ore. avionics maker. A spokesman said the company, a subsidiary of parcel-shipping giant UPS, plans to use the receiver in aviation navigation surveillance equipment, including ADS-B datalink avionics, to allow precision approaches in UPS airplanes down to 250-foot minimums. The first new products fitted with the UPSAT WAAS receiver should hit the market early next year, the spokesman added. The heart of the company’s WAAS sensor, he explained, is a proprietary microchip and circuit card capable of tracking as many as 15 GPS satellites and three WAAS satellites. Called the WAAS engine, the receiver calculates an aircraft’s three-dimensional position in space at a rate of five times per second. It automatically detects faulty GPS satellite signals and excludes them from its total position solution, and then uses the wide-area augmentation system to derive the aircraft’s precise location. UPSAT has also shown the receiver to be “highly resistant” to interference and jamming, said the spokesman.