India becomes the first country in Asia-Pacific to use satellite navigation to land aircrafts
MUMBAI: Satellites have been helping motorists navigate their way to destinations for decades now, but on Thursday, for the first time in Asia-Pacific region, the very same constellation of satellites that offers GPS teamed up with three ISRO satellites to provide three-dimensional navigation guidance to pilots who landed their aircraft safely on to the Ajmer airport runway in a successful trial flight.
“India is the first country in Asia-Pacific Region to achieve such a landmark…have a satellite-based landing procedure,” said government-owned Airports Authority of India (AAI), adding the successful trial was a major “air navigation services” milestone in India’s civil aviation history. Currently, air navigation services are provided by ground-based systems.
IndiGo airline carried out the test flight with its ATR aircraft that departed from Delhi for Ajmer’s Kishangarh airport, piloted by Captain Sandip Sud and Capt Satish Veera, while Capt Shweta Singh, deputy chief flight operations inspector, and other Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials were on board.
