News has been received from Frank W Fischer, President of ANSA, that the organisation has published an electronic version of Part II of its documentation on the development of air navigation in Germany between 1945 and 1955 in English.

This is available on the internet for reading only and is to be found on the website of the US Air Force Communicators and Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (AACS) here.

Furthermore it is understood that ANSA recently published an electronic version of the AACS story (1938 to 1947) Highways in the Sky by Louis Shores, written in 1947. This is available for free download from ANSAs website at luftfahrt-bibliothek.de.

The 10th Meeting of the International Committee on GNSS (ICG) was held in Boulder, Colorado, USA from 1 to 6 November 2015 to continue reviewing and discussing developments in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and to allow ICG members, associate members, and observers to address recent developments in their organizations and associations with regard to GNSS services and applications.

The meeting was organized by the Government of the United States. IAIN was
represented by Krzysztof Czaplewski (PNF).

MacGregor, part of Cargotec, announced on 27 November that it had won an order for substructure connection mooring systems for the world’s first floating offshore wind farm: Statoil’s Hywind pilot park in Scottish waters.

MacGregor will be responsible for the delivery of the Pusnes substructure mooring connection system for the pilot project’s five floating wind turbines. Delivery of equipment is planned from the second through to the fourth quarter of 2016 and installation of the wind turbines is scheduled for 2017.

Almarin, a Spanish manufacturer of marine aids to navigation, has carried out the design, supply and installation of three lanterns for shore-based lights for the port of Barcelona following acceptance in May of a turnkey tender.

The first task was to renovate the lantern at Cap de Creus lighthouse, this marks the cape of the same name in Catalonia’s north east, the most easterly part of Spain.

This was followed by work on two others lights that mark the entrance to Barcelona’s port and here new lanterns were installed above new concrete towers designed by the port.

The IMO Assembly has unanimously endorsed the appointment of Mr Kitack Lim (Republic of Korea) as the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), with effect from 1 January 2016, for an initial term of four years.

Mr Lim was president of Busan Port Authority (until the end of July 2015). He served as the Republic of Korea’s Deputy Permanent Representative to IMO from 2006 to 2009 and was Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Flag State Implementation (FSI) from 2002 to 2004.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will convene the third ICAO Air Transport Symposium (IATS 2016) with the theme Addressing Competition Issues: Towards a Better Operating Environment, in Montréal, Canada, on 30 and 31 March 2016.

The venue will be ICAO HQ, 999 Robert-Bourassa Boulevard, Montréal.

This symposium will serve as a forum for the exchange of views and information on competition issues amongst policy makers, air transport regulators, industry representatives, aviation professionals, competition law experts and other stakeholders. It will offer participants the opportunity to examine practical solutions to competition issues including, but not limited to, the role of government under the liberalized market, the application of competition rules to international air transport, aviation-specific safeguards, air connectivity and competitiveness in a liberalized market.

Regarding IAIN’s 15th World Congress held in Prague, Czech Republic, from 20 to 23 October 2015 Pavla Kozáková, Project Manager of the organisers GUARANT International, has now produced a final report which includes details on participants, representation per country, registration timetable, the list of keynote speakers with their topics, events and more.

Now the eighth in a series, Geospatial World Forum has proved popular with professionals engaged in the geospatial sector and its application domain. It is said to be a premium global platform for the geospatial community offering opportunities for learning, sharing, branding and networking with senior decision makers within the geospatial world. According to material received this conference aims to provide market intelligence, technology trends, success stories and capacity building.

HYPACK 2016, 4-7 January, 2016, Tampa, Florida.

This gathering, the 23rd annual HYPACK USA Training Event, is an opportunity for delegates to receive training in the hydrographic software packages: HYPACK®, HYSWEEP® and DREDGEPACK®.

Comprehensive training for both novice and experienced users will be available, it is understood. HYPACK certified trainers and programmers will be present for one-on-one sessions, giving those attending the opportunity to discuss any project specific questions.

Twenty-five of the industry’s leading companies will be exhibiting at the HYPACK® 2016 Training Event.

EERA DeepWind’2016 is the 13th Deep Sea Offshore Wind R&D Conference to be held in Trondheim, Norway.

Organized by the research parties in NOWITECH in cooperation with the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) joint programme on wind energy and NORCOWE, this international event aims at presenting the best R&D on deep sea offshore wind farms, both bottom fixed and floating.

It was announced from ITU in Geneva on 11 November that agreement has been reached at the World Radiocommunication Conference held in the city on the allocation of radiofrequency spectrum for global flight tracking in civil aviation. The frequency band 1087.7-1092.3 MHz has been allocated to the aeronautical mobile-satellite service (Earth-to-space) for reception by space stations of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) emissions from aircraft transmitters.

This [agreement between ICAO and ITU, ed.] follows the disappearance and tragic loss of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 in March 2014 with 239 people on board, which spurred worldwide discussions on global flight tracking and the need for coordinated action by ITU and other relevant organizations.

A session under way during the 15th IAIN World Congress held at the Corinthia Hotel, Prague.

Professor David Last gave the keynote address on the Navigation of Navigation. He pointed out that navigation had been taken out of the hands of the professionals and specialists and become a ‘consumer product’. There was no clear plan to handle this development. GPS/GNSS meets all needs, but there are concerns about vulnerability, including jamming and spoofing. Hardening, alternatives, multiple systems, Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM), reversion to traditional methods all have a place. eLoran is the only cost-effective solution available at present, but it has not been delivered yet. It has been shown to work and could be commercially operated, but there are no clear plans anywhere – Governments cannot handle the problem and he believed the navigation community is approaching the end of the era of systems, with vertical integration. Multiple GNSS are components of a system. They live and die together and here a flight plan is needed.

Professor František Vejražka of the Czech Institute of Navigation, centre, with at left, Captain Dick Smith, President of the IAIN and Professor Yasuo Arai of the Japanese Institute of Navigation. At the close of the Congress IAIN Honorary Membership was conferred on Professor Vejražka and Professor Arai was advanced to President.

David Calero of Spain was presented with the Sadek Award for the best paper presentation.

Illustrations reproduced by kind permission of Guarant International spol.s.r.o.

A session under way during the 15th IAIN World Congress held at the Corinthia Hotel, Prague.

Professor David Last gave the keynote address on the Navigation of Navigation. He pointed out that navigation had been taken out of the hands of the professionals and specialists and become a ‘consumer product’. There was no clear plan to handle this development. GPS/GNSS meets all needs, but there are concerns about vulnerability, including jamming and spoofing. Hardening, alternatives, multiple systems, Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM), reversion to traditional methods all have a place. eLoran is the only cost-effective solution available at present, but it has not been delivered yet. It has been shown to work and could be commercially operated, but there are no clear plans anywhere – Governments cannot handle the problem and he believed the navigation community is approaching the end of the era of systems, with vertical integration. Multiple GNSS are components of a system. They live and die together and here a flight plan is needed.

Professor František Vejražka of the Czech Institute of Navigation, centre, with at left, Captain Dick Smith, President of the IAIN and Professor Yasuo Arai of the Japanese Institute of Navigation. At the close of the Congress IAIN Honorary Membership was conferred on Professor Vejražka and Professor Arai was advanced to President.

David Calero of Spain was presented with the Sadek Award for the best paper presentation.

Illustrations reproduced by kind permission of Guarant International spol.s.r.o.

The International Symposium on Enhanced Solutions for Aircraft and Vehicle Surveillance Applications, ESAVS 2016, will be held in Berlin on 7 and 8 April next year organised by the German Institute of Navigation (DGON). A call for papers has been issued along with deadlines, the programme committee and other material.

ICAO report that the Investing In Airports Conference is less than one month away.

The theme is Investing in Airports, Economic Oversight and Regulation. This event is organized by Airports Council International (ACI), in co-operation with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The conference will provide an unprecedented opportunity to discuss economic oversight and regulation with a variety of aviation stakeholders, including ICAO, state regulators, airport operators, airlines and investors. According to a statement issued by ICAO this event marks the first time a full conference will be dedicated to learning about how changes to airport governance models and airport management practices are encouraging regulators worldwide to take new approaches to airport oversight and regulation.

Participants will also have an opportunity to engage in a pre-conference workshop where regulatory frameworks and airport governance and investment structures will be addressed.

Further details may be obtained here.

It was announced from Washington on 10 November that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is presenting a seminar regarding air traffic control in the general aviation environment. This seminar will be held on 12 December at the NTSB’s Training Center in Ashburn, Virginia. The NTSB has partnered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for this useful and educational seminar.

Attendees will have the rare opportunity to hear from local FAA Air Traffic Controllers, who will discuss policies and procedures which are important for pilots to understand while navigating through one of the most complex and busiest airspace locales in the Washington DC Terminal area. They will also discuss phraseology and communication procedures for pilots to be able to navigate the local airspace with ease.

IAIN held its 15th World Congress in Prague from 21-24 October 2015. The fourth Forum on Resilient Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) was held on 20 October 2015, immediately preceding the Congress.

Motivation has been the increasing reliance on Global Navigation Satellite Systems in all transport sectors, for timing and other essential infrastructure throughout the world. The inherent vulnerability of GNSS to disruption makes it essential to provide resilient supporting systems, particularly for safety of life and economically critical applications. Robust systems in the presence of interference, with integrity monitoring and authentication, can only be achieved through cooperative efforts by industry, administrations and user groups.

IAIN held its 15th World Congress in Prague from 21-24 October 2015. The fourth Forum on Resilient Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) was held on 20 October 2015, immediately preceding the Congress.

Motivation has been the increasing reliance on Global Navigation Satellite Systems in all transport sectors, for timing and other essential infrastructure throughout the world. The inherent vulnerability of GNSS to disruption makes it essential to provide resilient supporting systems, particularly for safety of life and economically critical applications. Robust systems in the presence of interference, with integrity monitoring and authentication, can only be achieved through cooperative efforts by industry, administrations and user groups.

On 3 November NTSB advised that it had contracted with the US Navy to locate the El Faro, victim of tropical storm Joaquin, document the wreckage and debris field and recover the voyage data recorder (VDR).
The El Faro has indeed been found, but the voyage data recorder is still missing. The navigation bridge and the deck below have separated from the vessel
and have not been located (yet).

It was announced from the (US) National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington on 31 October that a search team on board the USNS Apache has found the wreckage of a vessel that they believe to be the cargo ship El Faro, which went missing on 1 October during Hurricane Joaquin. The vessel was located at a depth of about 15,000 feet in the vicinity of her last known position.

Sophisticated sonar equipment towed from Apache first detected what are
believed to be images of the vessel using Orion, a side-scanning sonar system,
at about 1336 ET on 31 October during the fifth of 13 planned search line surveys.

To confirm the finding, specialists on Apache will use CURV 21, a deep ocean remotely operated vehicle, to survey and confirm the identity of the wreckage. This survey was due to commence on 1 November.

On 1 July this year 100 years ago, the Commonwealth of Australia officially
accepted responsibility from the state and territory governments for all
lighthouses around Australia.

To mark its special day, AMSA developed an interactive Lighthouse page on its website, which lists all Australian heritage lighthouses under their management.

The 16th IAIN World Congress is to be held in Chiba, Japan, starting November 28, 2018.

The 16th IAIN World Congress is to be held in Chiba, Japan, starting November 28, 2018.

It was announced from Montreal on 19 October that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) clarified the legal framework in place governing the roles and responsibilities of States, airlines and international organizations with respect to risks to civil aviation arising in national airspace.

The UN specialized agency for international civil aviation has issued the explanations subsequent to a number of misinterpretations which surfaced after the release of the MH17 Final Report.

From left to right: President Xi Jinping, Rt Hon Greg Hands MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rupert Pearce, CEO of Inmarsat. – Photo © Inmarsat

On 22 October Inmarsat welcomed the President of the People’s Republic of China, Mr Xi Jinping to its London headquarters, as part of the President’s historic State Visit to the UK.

The prestigious visit reflects the close working relationship between Inmarsat and China. China was one of the 86 countries that came together to found Inmarsat with a maritime safety mandate and over 35 years later Inmarsat continues to contribute to safety and security in the maritime and aviation worlds and, more recently, during disasters in China.

President Xi, accompanied by HRH The Duke of York, the Chinese Ambassador to London, HE Liu Xiaoming, the Rt Hon Greg Hands and Inmarsat executives, viewed Inmarsat’s Network Operations Centre to understand how Inmarsat is able to uniquely contribute to President Xi’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) strategic vision through the provision of critical global mobile broadband connectivity services, including Inmarsat’s revolutionary new service, Global Xpress.