News, Airport radar soon a blip in history. (GPS, satellite, navigation)
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LOUISVILLE — There's an unusual hush in the cockpit of the hulking UPS Boeing 767 as it begins its descent 127 miles and 35,000 feet above the airport here.
Instead of a cacophony of air-traffic radio calls instructing the pilots which way to turn, the jet's computer-navigation system is following a programmed path to the runway with barely a word from controllers. The jet's engines are quiet, too, idling as the nearly 300,000-pound aircraft glides to within 10 miles of the runway.
Some of the airlines are already screeming about how much it will cost to switch over to GPS. It's not unlike when LORAN was on the chopping block. Many mariners were upset about the cost (me being one) of switching over. Anybody that has used LORAN in the past will probably tell you how much they appreciate their GPS.
As a side note I don't know if I really want planes flying any closer together regardless of the technology. Also depending on the aircraft involved, you still need minimum seperation to avoid wake turbulence. Just my two cents.
That sure sounds like a very costly endevour to both airlines and airports.
As much as I like automation technology, I think we still need the human element as a back-up, for those times when technology breaks down.
Older generations of Boeing jetliners (707, 727 and the first generation of the 737 and the 747) required a 3-man flight crew, the pilot, co-pilot and the flight engineer. The role of the flight engineer was eliminated when the Boeing 757 was introduced in the early 1980's., and that role has now been given to the second officer (co-pilot) because a lot of the tasks flight engineers were responsible for have been automated.
Yes, but the existing older radar systems, both in the aircraft and on the ground, are also known to be grossly over-challenged by sheer volume of traffic alone, and are prone to occasional systems failures, leaving the air space around places like LAX without any appropriate protection. Therefore they have o have all inbound into some safe holding pattern, often hundreds of miles out!
Let's face it: the latest positional info, provided by on-board GPS devices plus full integration with digital radar information, and satellite feedback, provides a wonderful array of information. The sooner we adopt it, the better.
Simply put, I like to think that my usual assumption that I'll walk off my intact aircraft upon the (relatively..) safe and on-time arrival is reasonable!
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