Bangalore: By 2014-end, aircraft approaching Chennai airport do not need to hover long and wait for their turn to land. A new system is being tested for the first time in India, which will provide 26 alternate paths for aircraft to land, unlike the present system where all aircraft are forced to wait their turn through a single landing route.
The new Ground based Augmentation System (GBAS), being introduced by Honeywell Aerospace, the contract for which has been signed with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), will replace a system developed in the 1920s. (It started seeing heavy usage in the 1940s and '50s). This is just one of the innovative technologies that Indian airports are going to see in the next few years.
When an aircraft lands, a series of towers at the end of runway send out radio beacons to guide it. This forces all aircraft to land through only one path, thereby limiting the frequency of landings.
11/03/13 Neenu Abraham/Economic Times
