Air Traffic Control to be Enhanced by Satellites

We are dawning on a new age--Satellites to monitor and direct air traffic. This will occur over the Gulf of Mexico at this stage of enhancement. GPS will certainly be valuable in this arena, however, I recently read that the U.S. geosynchronous GPS system is on its way to failure. Many satellites are at the end of their life cycle with replacements hard to come by. Certainly, the U.S. Government doesn't plan on allowing this system to degrade so far as to be worthless to our Military! At the same time, the civilian sector is depending on the GPS system more than ever before. In cars, planes, cell phones--it is impregnated in our society at our basic level... GPS

The planes I flew, never had GPS installed, only the Loran C system that was designed with fixed ground based antennas in a grid that covered most of the coastline of the U.S. Of course, I also had my map, E6-B, protractor, ADF, etc., handy!!! Times have Changed! ...... lakotahope

Aircraft in Gulf to be tracked using satellites

By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Government officials say air traffic controllers in December will begin using satellite-based technology to track aircraft in a 240,000-square mile area of the Gulf of Mexico.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Randy Babbitt, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said Monday the move is a significant step toward replacing an air traffic control system based on World War II era radar technology with a GPS-based system.

Babbitt called the new system one of the biggest steps forward in technology in a generation.

The new system will allow airliners to fly more direct routes rather than from radar beacon to radar beacon as they do now. That could save billions of dollars every year in time and fuel, as well as cut pollution.