Plain English Meaning

A way of navigating that lets the pilot fly straight from one point to another point of their choosing, instead of having to fly from one ground station to the next. The aircraft's equipment works out where the plane is and which way to go to reach the next chosen point.

Full Definition

A method of navigation that allows an aircraft to fly any desired flight path within the coverage of ground- or space-based navigation aids, or within the limits of the capability of self-contained aids, rather than being restricted to flying directly to or from individual navigation stations. RNAV systems compute the aircraft's position, track, groundspeed, and time/distance to a defined point (waypoint) using inputs from sources such as , , , or inertial .