JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS

ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 14, 2020

INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM AND ITS REQUIREMENT IN INDIA

Shivendra Shrivastava1, Rahul Kumar Verma2, Gp Capt M Shrivastava3
1,2
Amity University, Noida
3
Air Force
1
loganmanav18@gmail.com, rkverma@amity.edu, 3mshri324007@gmail.com
2

Abstract: The ILS is a navigational aid invented in the forties it helps aircrafts in landing. The pilots still consider the
ILS as one of the most reliable means of guidance it continues to be used around the world. This paper examines what is
an ILS its categories, components and the relevance of ILS in India. Since all Indian airports do not have ILS it causes
disruption of flights, passenger discomfort and loss of business. The ILS has been compared with other advance systems
of navigation in the market. Considering seamless movement of flights a necessity for business and development of
India, the paper proposes ILS/GAGAN installation at all Indian airports.

Key words - ILS, Localizer, Glide slope, Yagi antenna.

BACKGROUND

The development of an instrument landing system (ILS) began during World War I in the twenties but it was not until the
thirties that some substantial research was carried out. The airports used to fire flares to guide the commercial airliners.
There was a lot of research work carried out by USA and UK from 1930 to 1947 in developing a system in order to land
aircrafts safely in low visibility conditions. This was a direct outcome of World War 2 since during the war the USAF
bombers could not carry out bombing over Europe in foggy weather conditions. They found that the aircrafts could take
off when visibility was low but on returning back from missions they could not land back on the runways due to poor
visibility created by fog. Also during the war there used to be 'Black outs' where in the lights in the cities and airports
were kept off to save them from enemy aircrafts bombing raids. The military aircrafts could not land at night in total
darkness they wanted a system which would guide them on the correct path to the runway.

These studies were done by the US Air Force in USA and by Royal Aircraft Establishment(RAE) in UK simultaneously
they were also being done in France. The use of directional antennas using VHF & UHF band were being explored.
There were various papers and patents published during that time in all these countries. The ILS came up as a result of
the military research and development by these establishments. The first known trial of ILS took place in USA it was
named Signal Corps System 51. The SCS51 can be called as the prototype of the current Instrument Landing System
(ILS). [1]

INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM (ILS)

This is a landing aid used by aircrafts it provides precision azimuth and descent guidance signals to the
aircrafts in air coming in for arriving on a runway under typical or antagonistic climate conditions. At the
point when all segments of the ILS framework the ground based and aircraft based are available the pilot
can approach and land. The use of ILS by commercial airliners was started after it was accepted by the
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 1945 as standard landing system. [2]

Figure 1. Basic figure of ILS

INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM (ILS) IN INDIA

The pilot of an aircraft has to establish visual contact with the runway in order to land at any airport, they need a
minimum visibility of 5 Kms in VFR (Visual Flight Rules). In the winter season our country experiences fog in northern
parts of the country over states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, UP , Uttrakhand, Bihar and West Bengal. Fog is caused by
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differential cooling between the rivers, lakes, water bodies and the land. The winds carry warm humid air towards the
cool land surface causing in a dense fog(Fig-2).
The dense fog over the airfield reduces the visibility to as low as 50 -100 meters as a result the pilots cannot see the
airport runway due to poor visibility conditions. The pilots try to spot the runway and make attempts to land if they are
unable to see the runway they go around again in consultation with the ATC control tower. If the attempts to land do not
materialize and the visibility remains poor, planes divert go to other airports. The fog renders the airport unusable due to
poor visibility.

Figure 2. Fog in winter season

Fog sends airports into a spin as aircrafts divert to other places. This disrupts flight schedules and causes delays for
hours with passengers waiting for the fog to lift. The passengers get delayed and put to discomfort. Many times the
airports have to be shut down due to low visibility. Every year numerous flights are delayed. The passengers miss their
flights. They have to wait in the aircrafts or at the airports. This type of interruption costs airlines massive losses as their
planes are not able to fly.

An instrument landing system (ILS) works on the radio waves principle. The aircraft intercept the radio waves and use
them as a guide to reach the runway. It provides lateral and vertical guidance to the pilot it uses a combination of radio
signals to facilitate a safe landing. ILS has two components one is ground-based and the other aircraft based instruments.
An instrument approach procedure is done during bad weather. An ILS approach chart provides pilots with information
needed to fly an ILS approach for each airfield. The chart has the radio frequencies of the ILS, navigational aids and
other requirements of the airfield.

CATEGORIES OF INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM

The ILS system has been categorized into three types based on the accuracy of the equipment available on the ground at
the airport. Similarly depending on precision of the compatible equipment on board the aircraft gives it the ability to
use the corresponding facility on ground. The ICAO standardization of the categories is internationally accepted. The
categorization is based on the decision height and the runway visibility (also called RVR runway visual range).

Decision Height

This height is very important for a pilot. In poor visibility when a pilot approaches the runway he has to carry out ILS
landing. It is the height at which the pilot should decide whether to continue the approach or initiate missed approach if
he does not spot the runway visually. The unit of measurement is meter/feet. The ILS categories are given below:-
[2]

(i) CAT I OPERATION. In this category directional information is provided up till the aircraft reaches an
altitude of 60 meters or 200 ft. The Runway Visual Range should not be less than 550m

(ii) CAT II OPERATION. In this category directional information is provided up till the aircraft reaches
an altitude of 30 meters or 100ft. The Runway Visual Range should not be less than 350m.

(iii) CAT III OPERATION. This category of ILS provides the guidance information up to the surface of the
runway. The CAT III ILS operation are further subdivided into: -

(a) CAT IIIA OPERATION. A ILS landing with :-

a) the decision height lower than 30m (100ft),or no decision height.
b) The runway visual range not less than 200m.
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(b) CAT IIIB OPERATION: A instrument approach and landing with : -

a) the decision height lower than 15m (50ft), or no decision height
b) the runway visual range less than 200 m not less than 50m.

(c) CAT III C OPERATION: This approach is right up to the runway with no limitations.

The categories can be represented with respect to Decision height in tabular form(Table-1) as follows:-

Category Decision height RVR

I 200ft /60mtr 550 mtr/ 1800 ft

350mtr/1200ft
II 100-200ft /30-60mtr

III A 100ft /30mtr 200mtr/700ft

50-200m /150-700ft
III B 50ft /15mtr

III C no limit None

Table-1

Figure 3. The Airports that facilitate ILS in India

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CAT I & II airports

CAT III Amritsar,Chandigarh,Delhi, Jaipur,Lucknow,Kolkata
Airports Authority of India looks after the airports in India. It has installed CAT I and CAT II ILS system at 52 airports
in the country they have been shown on the map(Fig-3). The CAT III B ILS system which is the latest and the most
precise system has been installed at only six airports in India.(Fig-3)
The small aircrafts and the older generation aircrafts are normally equipped with CAT I ILS or CAT II ILS systems
because of space and weight constraints. Smaller aircrafts have lesser space on board carry less weight. The CAT III
ILS is mounted on large aircrafts connected to the radio altimeter which gives the exact height of the aircraft to the pilot
to determine decision height.
WORKING OF INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEM

In the system basically there are two important functioning blocks the transmitter element which is ground based and the
receiver element which is aircraft based.

GROUND BASED EQUIPMENT : TRANSMITTERS

The ILS has ground based equipment consisting of Localizer and Glide slope, it is placed on the runway near the
touchdown point. The antennas give vertical and horizontal guidance information when landing in poor visibility as
shown in the Fig- 1. during a precision approach. The localizer is placed just before the starting of the runway and the
Glide slope is offset to the side by 10m to 25 m. They are painted red and white and can be seen while landing.
The signals are transmitted to form a signal pattern in the horizontal and vertical planes which provide guidance
information to the aircrafts in air. The ILS signal utilize numerous directional reception apparatuses to transmit an
abundance regulated radio recurrence signals. The signals combine in the air to produce a fan shaped beam .

Figure 4. Working of Transmitter

The localizer and glide slope signals are similar the difference between them is in the carrier frequency. The signal gets
combined and the information is provided. The modulation of the carrier signal is AM. The DDM measures the variation
of amplitude. The DDM is normally kept at 20% for localizer and 40% for glide slope signals. The carrier-plus-
sidebands (CSB) and a sidebands-only (SBO) radio frequency signals generated from 90 Hz and 150 Hz production.
The phase shifts is applied on both CSB and SBO signals before transmission (Fig-4).

Localizer

The localizer provides lateral guidance to the landing aircrafts. The transmitter antennas ( Fig-5) are always
mounted at the end of the runway. An antenna consists of a long array having numerous pairs of directional
antenna such that beam forms a lobe pattern above the runway. The right side of the runway centerline has 150
Hz modulation. The left side of the runway has 90 Hz signal (Fig-7). The frequencies for localizer are different for each
airport which are from 108.1 MHz to 111.95 MHz. As the pilot selects the runway frequency in the cockpit the ILS
receiver automatically tunes to this frequency. Each runway transmits Morse code signal over the localizer’s carrier
frequency for identification.

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Figure 5. Localizer Antenna

Glide Slope

This element of ILS gives vertical position of the aircraft during the landing. The glide slope antenna are
normally 700 to 1000 feet from the touchdown point of runway ( Fig-6) offset by about 400 ft. The pilot reins
the aircraft keeping the indicator at the center on the instrument panel. The angle of glide path is 3° above ground level.

Figure 6. Glide slope Antenna

The glide slope has two antennas mounted on the tower. The height of the antenna depends on angle of the glide path of
the airport. The beam formation is in vertical plane. The sum of the signals from each antenna generates a signal pattern.
The 90 Hz signal is on the top and 150 Hz signal is below the glide path (Fig-7). The localizer and the glide slope
frequencies are coupled. [2]

Figure 7. Wave formation of LOC aerial and GS aerial

Marker Beacons

The marker beacons are provided at some airports they have an operating frequency of 75 MHz. The
transmission from a marker beacon activates a colored light (Blue: Outer, Orange: Middle, White: Inner)
indicator on the pilot's instrument panel along with an audio tone. The point at which this indication is
received also provides a check point for the glide path. [3]

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(i) Outer marker(OM). The outer marker beacon is generally located 4 to 7 KM

away from the runway along the extended runway centre line.
(ii) Middle Marker(MM) beacon is generally located 01 KM from the runway.
(iii) Inner Marker is 200 to 1500 ft. (Fig -8)

Figure 8. Working of Marker beacons

Distance Measuring Equipment(DME)

In modern ILS a Distance Measuring Equipment is provided co -located with the ILS. A DME consists of an
interrogator on board an aircraft and DME station on the ground. The interrogator transmits pulses to the DME station on
the ground, these pulses trigger the DME station to reply. The time difference between transmitted pulse and its reception
gives us the distance from the aircraft to the DME station. (Fig -9)

Figure 9. Working of DME

The Approach Lighting System. The runways are equipped with approach lights and night landing lights
which help the pilot in landing during night flying.

WORKING OF AIRBORNE EQUIPMENT : RECEIVER

The aircrafts carry the receivers which interpret the signals received from the ground based ILS localizer and glide path.
This is presented inside the cockpit on the instrument panel to the pilot. It shows the location of the aircraft with respect
to the runway. The pilot applies correction to come in exact centre line of the runway and on correct glide path.

There are diverse types of equipment and they vary with the type of aircraft. Basic components are the localizer & glide
path indicator, the marker beacon indicator, antenna system and Distance measuring equipment (DME) receivers. The
basic airborne instrument for ILS has not changed much since 1952 to 1980 ies. The older instrument (Fig -10) on board
the aircraft is shown below in which the horizontal white line is the indicator for the glideslope and the vertical line is for
the localizer.

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Figure 10. Old ILS indicator in the cockpits

In modern instruments auto pilot has been added to allow hands free approach and landing also called fly by wire. The
ILS displays in modern aircrafts have changed to digital LCD displays which give an integrated display to the pilots from
all the sensors. The Garmin G-1000 PFD (Fig -11) display inside the cockpit of an aircraft during an ILS approach gives
a panoramic view to the pilot. In the bottom center of the display a green needle indicator is the localizer. Towards the
right on the vertical scale a green diamond can be seen it shows the glideslope.

Figure 11. LCD panel inside Cockpit(pilots view)

The RCU inputs all signals from aerials it acts as a central processor. The signals are converted to DC voltage , the
DDM gives a output voltage (Fig -12). This causes the needle to deflect in the direction of the difference. Thus if
aircraft is on the correct path the DDM will be zero and nil deflection.
For example, the Difference Depth of Modulation (DDM).

DDM  m90Hz  m150Hz

Localizer - DDM is positive aircraft is left of the RWY centre line, DDM negative its on the right
GlidePath - DDM is positive aircraft is above Glide Path ,DDM negative its below

Figure 12. Working of ILS receiver

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Marker Beacon Receiver. When the aircraft passes over a marker beacon the receiver gets the signal and lights the
marker beacon lamps blue for outer(O) orange for middle (M) and white for inner(I) and it also gives an audio signal to
the pilot.

Figure 13. Beacon indicator Receiver.

ANTENNAS

EQUIPMENT TYPE OF FREQUENCY BAND POLARIZATION BEAM WIDTH

ANTENNA

Localizer Yagi Antenna 108 to 118 MHz Horizontally Horizontal 110

Polarized degrees Vertical
beam 65
degrees.
Horizontal
Glide slope Corner Reflector 328 to 336 MHz Linear Horizontal 23 degrees
Antenna Polarized Vertical80
degrees

The antenna are mounted at different positions on the aircraft based on the principle of attaining maximum reception. The
antenna of the glide path receiver are located in front generally inside the nose of the aircraft. The antenna for the
localiser are located in the wings. The marker beacon aerials are meshed with body and are mounted under the aircraft.
[6]

RELEVANCE OF ILS IN INDIA

The aviation industry has shown tremendous growth in India since the last twenty years, there was a time when air travel
was limited to the rich people only because of the exorbitant costs. This has changed over the last three decades air travel
has become cheaper and more common. The country has developed many airports all the major cities have been
connected by flights. The country is undergoing a change where development of air connectivity to all the cities has been
planned by the government. India has only six CAT III B ILS airports.

ILS plays a very important role in guiding the pilots during bad weather conditions and landing during the night time.
The approach and landing is one of the most demanding task for the pilots. During the landing stage, the risk of aircraft
drifting away from the runway centre line is very high. The Statistics show that around 50 percent of the flight accidents
happen during landing stages of an aircraft. The ILS is the key which accurately guides the aircraft precisely to the
runway touchdown point.

There have been numerous new inventions over the century but ILS is still considered the best. The new systems like the
Microwave landing system (MLS),Global positioning system (GPS) [8] and DGPS have certain shortcomings like
position errors caused by weather and atmosphere. The satellite based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)
landing system (GLS) has been invented in 1998 [5] but has not been universally accepted because of attenuation caused
by ionosphere which results in signal losses .

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LANDING ILS Microwave landing system Global Navigation

SYSTEMS MLS Satellite System
(GNSS) landing system
ATTRIBUTES (GLS)

Availability at Very High Limited. The MLS Limited

airports available in North America
only. Air Transport
Association raised
objections. Kept off after
the advent of GPS. [4]

Cost of installation Low Expensive Very Expensive

Manufacturers around 15 3 3-4

the world

Satellite Satellite not required Satellite not required Compulsory for GPS
communication

Horizontal Accuracy Very good Very Good Low accuracy

Vertical Accuracy Very good Very Good Low accuracy

Curved approach of Results Average Very good results Experiences loss of

aircraft satellite signal

Effect of Ionosphere Nil Nil Ionosphere causes signal

degradation

Update to the aircraft Continuous Regular Update rate Low

Availability of Satellite not required Satellite not required Availability dependent

satellites on US department of
defence as all GPS
satellites owned by them

Table-2 Comparison of Landing systems

COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT WITH RESPECT TO GNSS

The air traffic management is looked after by Federal Airports Authority in USA. ILS
has been installed at 1250 or more airports in USA. Most of them are Thales MK20A .
USA The FAA plans to replace ILS with the Global navigation satellite system(GNSS) in
future. The GNSS installation has commenced in the US in 2012.Over 100 airports have
GNSS. [5]

France has ILS installed and functioning at 158 airports. They plan to deploy the GNSS
France gradually at their airports with the development of approach procedures by 2020 . They
plan to keep the Cat III ILS till 2030.

UK The largest airport of UK Heathrow has installed the new generation ILS with wide

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antennas . UK has been slow in their plans to change to GNSS considering that their
largest airport does not have GNSS.

Most of the countries in Asia ,Europe Australia have the ILS installed at their airports
and continues to be used regularly by the aircrafts. India presently has no plans to install
GNSS at any of its airports. The high cost of GNSS is a limitation. It will require crores
of rupees to buy this equipment. It will remain under the total control of the US GPS
satellites. Majority of our small airports are short trips one or two hours they do not need
such costly navigation. The new generation ILS have wide antennas thus giving narrow
beam width which in turn increases the accuracy. In the present scenario these are
India
considered adequate for Indian subcontinent.

India has gone way ahead with development of GAGAN (GPS based Geo Augmentation
Navigation) it's the Indian Satellite Based Navigation system (SBAS). It uses the
algorithms developed by the ISRO. This system is more accurate as ISRO has
addressed the problems due to ionosphere over Indian sub continent. The initial
installation is planned at 06 airports in India. [7]

Table -3 Development with respect to GNSS

CONCLUSION

All Commercial Airliners carry the ILS equipment on board, it is used for landing during extreme conditions. The pilots
continue to rely on the ILS as a navigational aid its reliability is very high even after so many years. The market costs
have reduced over the century there are 16 manufacturers around the world producing this high quality Aid . The Indian
airports are deficient of navigation aids specially in landing systems. India has a growing market in aviation and the
government has introduced the regional connectivity network policy which plans to connect all the regions of the
country by the means of air. The research and development of GAGAN has been a major step in our vision towards
Make in India. GAGAN is an Indian system, its installation at airports will enhance the Indian business and industries.
Hence this paper recommends that India should install ILS or GAGAN at every airport to boost the infrastructure at the
airports. These systems will allow the Indian airports to be self reliant and available for flights throughout the year. This
will enable businesses to function seamlessly and improve the flight safety for aircrafts.

REFERENCES

[1]. Sir John Charnley CB, "The RAE Contribution to All-Weather Landing", Journal of Aeronautical History Volume 1,
Paper No. 2011/ 1

[2]. Mutaz Mohammed Abdalla Eltahier, Prof.Khalid Hamid, "Review of Instrument Landing System", IOSR Journal of
Electronics and Communication Engineering (IOSR-JECE) e-ISSN: 2278-2834,p- ISSN: 2278-8735.Volume 12, Issue 2,
Ver. III (Mar.-Apr. 2017), PP 106-113

[3]. "Instrument Landing System Operational Notes." Civil Aviation safety Authority, Department of Aviation ,Australia

[4]. Dave Higden, " Microwave landing system: future in doubt once again", Jan 11, 1988

[5]. D. Alexander Stratton , Rockwell Collins Inc.,Cedar Rapids, "Satellite landing system having other publications
Instrument landing system look alike guidance", US patent no 6,239,745 B1,May 29,2001

[6]. Ole Petter Håkonsen, Nairobi, Kenya, assignor to Sintef, Trondheim, Norway," Antenna system For ILS
Localizers",
US patent no 3,518,673, June 30, 1970

[7]. International Civil Aviation Organization ,"THE SIXTH MEETING OF IONOSPHERIC STUDIES TASK
FORCE", (ISTF/6) ISTF/6 – IP/05 Agenda Item 3 18/01/16, Bangkok, Thailand, 19 – 21 January 2016
[8] Jayanthi, R. and Rama, S.T., 2017. IOT Based Smart Energy Tracking System. International Journal of MC Square
Scientific Research (IJMSR), 9(1), pp.98-108.
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