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What About China Lake?

I am always grateful when the Harrier gets good press. The AV-8B, for both the U.S. Marine Corps, UK, Italy and Spain, is a critical yet often overlooked element to defense strategies.

The article in the July issue (page 21) regarding the OSCAR program appears to have relied solely on NAVAIR and Boeing for reference. However, the AV-8B Joint Systems Support Activity (JSSA) at China Lake is the principal avionics and software support activity for the Harrier and importantly, directly participated in architecting the OSCAR project. It pursued approval for the program, contracted Boeing’s participation and is a major participant in OSCAR implementation. So it seems to be an oversight that no one at the JSSA was consulted for this article.

James E. Wojciehowski
AV-8B JSSA
China Lake, Calif.

We regret the oversight, although we feel the article is quite complete otherwise. When we cover the AV-8B again, we’ll be sure to include the Joint Systems Support Activity at China Lake–Editor.

First Transpolar Pilot

I am writing regarding your column, "Flying the Polar Routes" (April 2002, page 28). I would like to insert a small correction regarding the name of the pilot who was first in transpolar flight. His name is Valery (not Valcry) Chkalov. I believe it is just a misprint. Nevertheless, he was a really amazing test pilot and all Russian people remember and respect the memory of this guy.

Thanks for the interesting magazine.

Stanislav Lobashov
Avionics Engineer
Air Baltic
Latvia

Eurofix and Polar Routes

I read with great interest your article, "Over the Top–Flying the Polar Routes" (April 2002, page 21). The reason is that we now are investigating the suitability of Eurofix as a data link for broadcasting external GPS integrity data (WAAS, EGNOS or MSAS) to aircraft flying the polar routes.

For your information, Eurofix integrates GNSS (global navigation satellite system) and Loran-C pseudo ranges to achieve a more reliable position determination. Further, the Loran-C signals are time modulated to generate a data link channel to broadcast differential GPS and differential GLONASS (Russia’s global navigation satellite system), as well as GPS integrity messages. The chosen modulation type does not degrade the normal Loran-C performance. A description of Eurofix can be viewed on the Web site www.Eurofix.tudelft.nl. Eurofix is on the air in western Europe, where it covers the area from the North Cape down to the Pyrenees.

Durk van Willigen
Reelektronika
Reeuvijk, Netherlands