[Technology Changes on Aviation-By Steve Matthews] 1
I began flying lessons in 1986 with an
introductory flight Christmas gift I
received from my wife. Flying was a
passion I had hoped to pursue since
my youth. My flying lessons were in a
Cessna 152. This aircraft has been
used to teach people to fly for many
years.
The Cessna 152 was a very basic
aircraft with the standard layout of
instruments, being equipped with two
radios for communication and
navigation. The equipment had not
changed much over the years. The
biggest change had been the addition
of radios.
With the advancement of computers
and the space program, aviation has
improved the way pilots fly aircraft.
Some of the changes that I will
address are the uses of GPS, (global
positioning system), digitized
instruments replacing steam gauges,
and the use of the iPad in the cockpit.
From WWI until the 1980’s, there
were two ways to navigate: 1. use a
map and follow the terrain, or 2. use
one of two different radios (NDB or
VOR). These were radios in the
cockpit picking up a signal from a
ground-based transmitter. The pilot
was able to receive the signal only
until the aircraft had traveled over the
curvature of the earth. Then he would
have to use another radio on the
ground. Ground based radios were
positioned in various places around
the country. Using this type of
navigation prevented an aircraft from
flying in the straight line.
The first satellite in the GPS system,
,Navstar 1, was launched February 22,
1978. Between then and October 1,
1990, a series of additional satellites
were launched developing a global
positioning system that has
revolutionized the method of
navigation. You can now type an
airport identifier into a GPS radio and
fly in a straight line to that airport.
This not only saves time, but also
makes it much easier for the pilot to
fly because he no longer has to change
frequencies to navigate to the next
radio station on the ground.
The GPS has also permitted new ways
to fly approaches. An approach is a
way to position the aircraft for landing
on a runway during low visibility and
low ceiling conditions. Pilots can now
even fly an approach to many small
airports to the same low ceilings that
were only available at larger, betterequipped airports in the past.
The cockpit has also changed with the
introduction of digitized instruments.
The advance of computer screens has
made it possible to have all the flight
instruments on one screen which
completely changes the way a cockpit
looks. Some airplanes may have only
three or four screens across the
instrument panel, whereas in the past,
there were several instruments. This
has made it much easier to use other