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Alexandria, VA – October 24, 2006 – Rannoch Corporation has been awarded a contract by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for engineering support in the development of the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS).

LAAS is an all-weather satellite aircraft landing system that will improve aircraft safety during airport approaches and landings. As LAAS ground stations become available, aircraft equipped to use LAAS will be able to operate more efficiently and safely in the terminal area in all visibility conditions.

“Rannoch’s expertise makes us uniquely qualified to assist the FAA as it transitions to the next generation of precision landing systems”, said Rick Cassell, Rannoch’s Director of Safety Systems. “LAAS will offer very precise guidance to aircraft, eventually providing guidance all the way to the runway surface even when visibility is near zero.”

The contract covers a 3 year period, and is a follow on to previous engineering support provided by Rannoch to the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) on the LAAS program. WJHTC has the lead role for the FAA in the LAAS test program and provides other engineering support, including the development of the Category I LAAS ground facility and definition of requirements for Category III LAAS. The engineering support also includes support for the development of LAAS standards through RTCA Special Committee 159 (GPS) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Navigation Systems Panel.

LAAS is designed to correct some of the aviation-related issues in basing navigation solutions on GPS. LAAS incorporates a Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) for improving the accuracy of the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS is the basic infrastructure for the worldwide Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). LAAS is intended to provide guidance information for precision approach and landing operations, airport surface guidance, and terminal area navigation. It will also be a source of navigation information used to implement aircraft ADS-B surveillance in the terminal area and airport surface environments. LAAS is one of the technologies under consideration for implementation as part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS), as a replacement for the existing Instrument Landing System (ILS).