The TACAN (TACtical Air Navigation) is a navigation system used by military aircraft. It provides the pilot with bearing and distance (slant-range) to a ground or ship-borne station. It is a more accurate version of the VOR/DME system used for civil aviation.
The TACAN operates in the UHF band and its frequency ranges from 960 to 1215 MHz. Its characteristics allow simpler and smaller emitters compared to VOR. This enables its installation on a building, a large truck, an airplane, or a ship, and be operational in a short period of time.
The DME portion of the TACAN system is available for civil use. At VORTAC facilities where a VOR is combined with a TACAN, civil aircraft can receive VOR readings. Aircraft equipped with TACAN avionics can use this system for en-route navigation as well as non-precision approaches to landing fields.
The TACAN is not a default piece of equipment in our flight simulators software.
The Microwave Landing System (MLS) is an all-weather precision landing system originally intended to replace or supplement the ILS.
MLS has a number of operational advantages, including a wide selection of channels to avoid interference with other nearby airports, excellent performance in all weather, small footprint at the airports, and wide vertical and horizontal capture angles that allows approaches from wider areas around the airport. It operates on frequencies around 5 GHz and has a range of around 20 Km.
In real life, the only airport that used it was London Heathrow (EGLL) airport, but the system was decommissioned on the 31st of May 2017.
The MLS is not a default piece of equipment in our flight simulators software.
The LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) is a hyperbolic radio navigation system developed in the US during World War II. It is based on the calculation of the time difference between two radio pulses, emitted by two ground stations, one master and one slave, typically separated by about 1000 km. Each pair broadcast at one of four frequencies (1.75, 1.85, 1.9 or 1.95 MHz).
LORAN systems have been decommissioned.
The LORAN is not a default piece of equipment in our flight simulators software.
OMEGA is an old navigation system which enabled ships and aircraft to determine their position over a very large range (8000 Km) by receiving Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio signals in the range 10 to 14 kHz, transmitted by a network of fixed terrestrial radio beacons, using a receiver unit.
It became operational around 1971 and was shut down in 1997 in favour of the GPS system.
The OMEGA is not a base piece of equipment in our flight simulators software.