Stay up to date
Aireon is at the leading edge of Aviation technology, sign up to stay up to date with all our news, completely free.
Fly there faster? New satellite coverage promises to revolutionize air traffic control
02/05/2019
The aircraft symbols inch their way across the computer monitor — Air France 378 en route from Paris to Detroit; Delta 85, a Boeing 777 headed to Atlanta; and Lufthansa 412, an Airbus A350 flying Munich to Newark.
At first blush, there’s nothing exceptional about the air traffic control display — except for the piece of airspace it depicts.
These aircraft over the North Atlantic are far beyond the range of ground-based radar. What makes this real-time depiction of oceanic air traffic possible is a new constellation of satellites now orbiting the Earth, giving controllers a window on flights they’ve never had before.