A complementary filtering technique for deriving aircraft velocity and position information

An onboard navigation system which employed complementary filtering was developed to provide velocity and position information. The inputs to the mix filter included both acceleration inputs, which provided high-frequency position and velocity information, and radar position inputs, which provided the low-frequency position and velocity information. Onboard aircraft instrumentation, including attitude reference gyros and body-mounted accelerometers, was used to provide the acceleration information. An in-flight comparison of signal quality and accuracy showed good agreement between the complementary filtering system and an aided inertial navigation system. Furthermore, the complementary filtering system was proven to be satisfactory in control and display system applications for both automatic and pilot-in-the-loop instrument approaches and landings.