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10/30/2008 10:16 AM
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GPS Could Save Fuel and Emissions for Airline Industry
SustainableBusiness.com News
One might assume that airlines, which are struggling under the burden of increased fuel costs, would fly the most direct routes from point A to point B--but that's not the case.
The current air traffic network regularly routes planes into indirect flight patterns to facilitate communications and radar coverage necessary for safe flight. However, a $35 billion plan to switch airlines to a satellite GPS navigation system could allow planes to fly straight lines, saving 3.3 billion gallons of fuel a year and saving billions of dollars and untold amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.
But the complexity of switching systems and fuding delays have the program in a holding pattern, and the federal government doesn't expect it to be operational for more than a decade.
Read the full Associated Press coverage in the Baltimore Sun.
