According to this GPS World post, Harris Corporation intends to make it easier to track aircraft around the world. How? Simple–by using GPS and Iridium NEXT satellites. “Wait,” you might interject, “Don’t airplanes already use
According to this GPS World post, Harris Corporation intends to make it easier to track aircraft around the world. How? Simple–by using GPS and Iridium NEXT satellites. “Wait,” you might interject, “Don’t airplanes already use GPS?” Well, yes they do, but this is why Iridium NEXT is important, too.
The point of GPS has almost always been for the receiver to know exactly where it is on the Earth’s surface. So anyone who has a GPS receiver, and is in a location where they can receive a few GPS satellite signals, knows exactly what their coordinates are. But GPS satellites were never really intended to receive signals back from receivers and then transfer it to the satellite ground station. So for a while now, airplanes have been using ground-based communications networks to relay their GPS location. But this depends on line of sight and the availa