For over 70 years now, airplanes have depended on radar systems to navigate themselves around the skies. Radar technology is very limited and outdated, and does not even let planes view the location of other planes in the sky.
Finally, ITT has developed a solution to this problem through the use of high accuracy GPS technology. GPS systems are already very popular on the ground, be it vehicle navigation, fleet tracking, personal tracking, etc. But we have never been able to use this satellite base technology on airplanes until now.
The new GPS system is called NextGen, and the name is definitely very appropriate. This breakthrough in GPS usage represents the next generation is aviation technology, and is a vast upgrade of this country’s air traffic control system. NextGen has been calculated to be over 10 times more accurate than the radar systems previously used on aircraft.
Using GPS technology on airplanes comes with some serious benefits, including massive saving in fuel used, a reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions, and giving pilots better control over accents and descents. This system also reveals a lot more information to the pilot, like the positions of the planes around them, sudden changes in weather or temperature, or other crucial data needed to safely fly passengers to their desired locations.
In the past, numerous planes have got off radar and have literally lost all contact with the outside world. In certain cases, this can become very dangerous, such as flights 477 and 228, both planes that mysteriously disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean after their radars jammed. The main problem with radar is that it cannot detect a plane that is within 200 miles of land, and in the past, air traffic controllers have had to estimate the location of the planes as it gets closer to the ground. This could be extremely dangerous in the case of an emergency landing.
This new system can also cut down on delays by about 21%, which mean that passengers can finally get where they need to go without so much waiting time. NextGen technology will be available on most airlines as early as 2012, and will revolutionize the world of air traffic for many years to come.
