When Phase 1 is in operation, WAAS will provide pilots with en route navigation and vertical guidance for precision approaches to runways over a limited portion of the continental United States.
The new schedule will provide a navigation signal broadcast in mid 1999. This signal will be broadcast from two Inmarsat satellites already on contract and will be capable of supporting non-safety applications, such as an aid to visual flight rule (VER) flight.
WAAS commissioning, scheduled for the fall of 2000, will support instrument flight rule (IFR) flight.
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Md., is currently conducting an independent risk assessment of the use of GPS for civil aviation. That assessment, which is expected to be released this month, will help determine whether WAAS is capable of being used as the sole or primary means of navigation for civil aviation. The revised schedule will give the FAA adequate time to redefine future satellite navigation improvements in light of the Hopkins study.
An electronic version of this news release is available via the World Wide Web at：www.faa.gov
