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    Congress approves $11b for FAA switch to GPS-based air traffic control

    Congress approves $11b for FAA switch to GPS-based air traffic control

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    Congress has passed a bill to give the FAA $11 million to speed up the transition from radar to GPS in air traffic control centres. The bill also requests the FAA explore the use of drones in expanded airspace.

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    United Airlines jet
    United Airlines jet

    After five years of trying to hash out the details, Congress passed a bill on Monday to upgrade the nation's air traffic control systems from radar to GPS. If signed by the President, the FAA will receive $63.4 billion over four years for various initiatives, with $11 billion going towards modernizing the nation's 35 busiest air traffic control systems by June 2015. The hope is that this switch will make our already-crowded skies safer, as GPS updates the position of aircraft every second. Radar, on the other hand, only updates every six to 12 seconds. This will allow aircraft to take off and land closer together, and descend quicker to save fuel, as well as help accomodate the FAA's predicted 50 percent growth in air traffic over the next decade.

    Another interesting note in the bill is a call for expanding access to U.S. airspace for military, commercial, and private drones. Domestic drone flight is currently restricted mainly to segregated blocks of military airspace or at low altitudes away from airports, but Congress has asked the FAA to prepare a report to outline a way for manned and unmanned aircraft to get along in the same sky.