Airbus WAAS Capability

[divinehover]

Morning all

I was wondering if anyone knew if modern (2003+) airbus aircraft come standard with WAAS recievers or do they need to be upgraded I see the FAA has begun rolling out all the new WAAS/LPV approaches. These WAAS approaches do however have their own WAAS Channel. Which aircraft out there are capable of tuning into this.

DH

[A330AV8R]

WAAS

Currently, WAAS satellite coverage is only available in North America. There are no ground reference stations in South America, so even though GPS users there can receive WAAS, the signal has not been corrected and thus would not improve the accuracy of their unit. For some users in the U.S., the position of the satellites over the equator makes it difficult to receive the signals when trees or mountains obstruct the view of the horizon. WAAS signal reception is ideal for open land and marine applications. WAAS provides extended coverage both inland and offshore compared to the land-based DGPS (differential GPS) system. Another benefit of WAAS is that it does not require additional receiving equipment, while DGPS does.

Other governments are developing similar satellite-based differential systems. In Asia, it's the Japanese Multi-Functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), while Europe has the Euro Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). Eventually, GPS users around the world will have access to precise position data using these and other compatible systems.


Hope this helps

[FlightTester]

WAAS

I can't speak for the way Airbus does things but, the WAAS capibility exists in the FMS computers - not as part of the basic aircraft. Our FMS's have only been upgraded to process WAAS within the past eighteen months, so maybe the question should not refer to how modern an Airbus is, but how recently was the last FMS upgrade carried out. Further to that have Airbus certified WAAS yet? The WAAS enabled FMS needs to be TSO'd, then Airbus would have to certify that their aircraft can navigate using WAAS - LPV etc.