EAWS Aviation Communications and Navigation Systems 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does the acronym TACAN stand for?
- Tactical Air Command and Navigation
- Tactical Air Navigation (Correct answer)
- Terminal Area Control and Navigation
- Total Aircraft Navigation
Correct answer: Tactical Air Navigation
TACAN stands for Tactical Air Navigation, a military UHF navigation system that provides bearing and slant-range distance to a ground or ship-based station.
Question 2: What two pieces of navigation information does a TACAN system provide to the aircrew?
- Airspeed and altitude
- Bearing and distance (DME) (Correct answer)
- Heading and course correction vectors
- Ground position and time
Correct answer: Bearing and distance (DME)
TACAN provides the magnetic bearing to/from the station and slant-range distance via its distance measuring equipment (DME) function.
Question 3: The Instrument Landing System (ILS) consists of which two primary components that guide an aircraft to the runway?
- Glide slope and distance measuring equipment
- Localizer and glide slope (Correct answer)
- TACAN and precision approach radar
- VOR and DME
Correct answer: Localizer and glide slope
ILS uses a localizer for lateral (left/right) alignment with the runway centerline and a glide slope transmitter for vertical (up/down) descent guidance.
Question 4: What is the primary operational advantage of an Inertial Navigation System (INS) over radio-based navigation aids?
- Greater absolute accuracy than GPS
- Operation without any external signals or references (Correct answer)
- Immunity to all weather conditions
- Faster position update rates
Correct answer: Operation without any external signals or references
INS uses onboard accelerometers and gyroscopes to dead-reckon position from a known starting point, requiring no external transmissions and making it jam-proof.
Question 5: What unique capability does the Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS) provide to carrier-based aircraft?
- Automated catapult launch sequencing
- Fully automatic approach and landing in zero-visibility conditions (Correct answer)
- Navigation routing from shore base to the carrier
- Automated fuel state calculations during approaches
Correct answer: Fully automatic approach and landing in zero-visibility conditions
ACLS uses a shipboard radar and data-link to provide fully automatic approach and landing guidance, allowing recovery in zero-zero visibility conditions.
Question 6: How does the Global Positioning System (GPS) determine an aircraft's position?
- By receiving bearing signals from TACAN ground stations
- By calculating position from timing signals received from orbiting satellites (Correct answer)
- By measuring Doppler shift from VHF ground beacons
- By referencing inertial platform drift against known terrain
Correct answer: By calculating position from timing signals received from orbiting satellites
GPS receivers compute precise position, velocity, and time by measuring the arrival time of signals from a constellation of orbiting satellites.
Question 7: The Automatic Direction Finder (ADF) determines an aircraft's bearing relative to which type of ground station?
- VOR (VHF Omni-Range) station
- TACAN transponder
- Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) (Correct answer)
- ILS localizer antenna
Correct answer: Non-Directional Beacon (NDB)
ADF receives the omnidirectional low/medium frequency signal from a Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) and displays the bearing of that station relative to the aircraft.
EAWS Aviation Communications and Navigation Systems 2
What does the acronym TACAN stand for?