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Lateral navigation

type of navigation

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 6, 2024
Entity authorityQ6459226 ↗
Source-derived summary

In aviation, lateral navigation (LNAV, usually pronounced el-nav) is azimuth navigation, without vertical navigation (VNAV). Area navigation (RNAV) approach plates include LNAV as a non-precision instrument approach (NPA). When combined with VNAV, the resulting instrument approach, LNAV/VNAV, is referred to as an Approach with Vertical Guidance (APV).

Instrument approaches

An LNAV approach is flown to a Minimum Descent Altitude, MDA, while an LNAV/VNAV approach is flown to a Decision Altitude, DA. If WAAS becomes unavailable, a GPS or WAAS equipped aircraft can revert to the LNAV MDA using GPS only.

Autopilots

LNAV is also the name of an autopilot lateral (roll) mode on several aircraft. In Boeing aircraft, when in LNAV mode, the autopilot will follow the lateral flight path programmed in to the Flight Management Computer.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Lateral navigation” as type of navigation. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lateral, navigation and type.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current 127-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Lateral, navigation and type providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Lateral navigation”, the useful work is to connect “type of navigation” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 6, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q6459226. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lateral navigation”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lateral navigation primary sources, Lateral navigation archive and Lateral research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lateral navigation”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lateral navigation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.