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Commercial airliners have this for a long time. Early 474 models have it. And VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) beacons are still used. Many of the systems used
by kayodelycaon 2y ago
Commercial airliners have this for a long time. Early 474 models have it.
And VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) beacons are still used.
Many of the systems used are much older than people realize. Airports had ILS (instrument landing systems) in the 1950s. Improved low visibility versions started coming out in the 1970s.
- jillesvangurp 2y agoA lot of these systems are being phased out. Lots of airports now have GPS only approaches where they would have had an ILS systems in the past. The bigger airports still have more advanced ILS systems for landings in extremely limited/no visibility but also have GPS approaches. A normal IFR approach has more relaxed minimums that you can get to with GPS so there are a lot of airports without any ILS system in place at this point. The GPS approach gets you down to minimums of something like 200 feet above ground at which you either have the runway in sight or abort the landing. Likewise, VOR radios are slowly being retired and increasingly used as a fallback only. GPS systems in planes have been common for since end of last century. ILS and VOR infrastructure is kind of expensive to keep up and running and increasingly optional.
- kayodelycaon 2y agoI wasn’t meaning to apply that ILS was a sufficient alternative . I was using it as an example of tech technologies that have been around for a long time. Navigation without GPS is not a problem for a commercial airliner. Landing without it in poor visibility is a different issue.