The Development of Night Navigation in the U.S. ||According to
the technical forecasters of today, aircraft in the next century
will finally lose their bonds to Earth. The use of the Global
Positioning System (GPS) will allow freer flight by unleashing
aircraft from their ground based navigation systems. By placing
new technology into aircraft, navigation would be provided by a
network of 24 satellites instead of the current ground based
system of slightly over 2,000 navigational aids. Todays aircraft
still find their way by using airways and their ground-based
navigational systems based on the development of the VOR, DME,
and ILS since World War Two. Todays airways, though, trace their
roots to a time before radio. After World War One, the U.S. Post
Office began operating a series of air mail routes along the
East Coast. On August 20, 1920, the Transcontinental Air Mail
Route was opened. Extending from New York to San Francisco, it
was the first airway to cross the nation. Airways in those days
were merely c