Air Traffic Control

Hello, world. It's been a while.

Politics just got too exhausting, especially as nothing ever seems to change.

But this morning I was listening to NPR, and they had an article on the “next generation” air traffic control system, the contract for which has just been awarded, and I wanted to make an observation.

This new system will reportedly work not based on “outdated” RADAR technology, but on GPS. This is reportedly far more accurate and will allow planes to safely operate more closely to each other in the sky, as our number of daily travelers grows ever higher.

Sounds good, so far as it goes. And hopefully the people who will develop this new system have already considered what I'm about to suggest...

What happens if the GPS system fails? I don't mean necessarily catastrophically, I mean even simply. I've been out with my GPS (granted a much more inexpensive model than one would assume would be on a jumbo jet, but still) and, on a clear day with no trees around lost my contact with the satellites. There are intermittent outages. And most importantly, all of our electronics in low earth orbit are subject to down time or outright failure when there is high sun-spot or solar flare activity.

So what happens on the day that our sun gets a bit restless, has a bad case of gas, and breaks wind in our direction? What happens when all of those planes, more closely packed in the sky and relying absolutely on their knowledge of each others' relative positions, suddenly lose their GPS signals?

I'm quite sure in a multi-billion dollar system that's being developed, there will be some kind of backup system, right? And I can't be the only person to have had this thought while listening to the reporter extolling the virtues of GPS and the marvels it will bring to modern air travel, right?

The system is scheduled to be developed over the next 15-20 years, there's plenty of time for people to find and fix all of these issues.

But it was the first thing through my mind when I heard the story, and since I can't get it out of my head, maybe writing about it will help.

Liam.