Definitions

Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) is defined as a navigation beacon, usually coupled with a VOR beacon, to enable aircraft to measure their position relative to that beacon. Aircraft send out a signal which is sent back after a fixed delay by the DME ground equipment. An aircraft can compute its distance to the beacon from the delay of the signal perceived by the aircraft's DME equipment using the speed of light.

Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) is defined as a combination of ground and airborne equipment which gives a continuous slant range distance-from-station readout by measuring time-lapse of a signal transmitted by the aircraft to the station and responded back. DMEs can also provide groundspeed and time-to-station readouts by differentiation.

(EUROCONTROL EATM Glossary of Terms)

Related Articles

• Non-Directional Beacon;
• Automatic Direction Finding (ADF);
• VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range (VOR);
• Instrument Landing System (ILS);
• Global Positioning System (GPS).
• ICAO Phonetic Alphabet