Can GPS End Gridlock In The Air?

Satellite-based GPS systems have been guiding drivers, ships and even hikers for years now. But CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes reports that old-fashioned radar still guides the nation's airplanes.

"We're operating old, 1960s' technology, and you can't just keep patching it up," said Marion Blakey of the Federal Aviation Administration. "You're going to have to make a total switch in the system."

Every control tower and every jet must be retrofitted with GPS - at an estimated cost to taxpayers, airlines and the flying public of $20 billion.

"Everybody wants it, but no one wants to pay for it," said aviation expert Peter Goelz. The payoff, he said, is accuracy.

Radar often requires flights to follow a jagged path from one radar station to the next. GPS lets planes signal their locations from anywhere, enabling them to travel more direct routes that save time and fuel.

"You keep the high level of safety, but you're just getting better utilization of the airspace," Goelz said. "And that's really the wave of the future."

It will also allow planes to take off and land closer together, Cordes reports, meaning less time sitting in line on the runway and less time circling above the airport.

Shipping giant UPS has already begun installing the technology on its cargo jets. But the high cost and the hype have turned some airlines and air traffic controllers into skeptics.

"You wanna double the aircraft in the sky? Do it," said Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "We just need more controllers and more runways to land 'em. Otherwise, it doesn't matter what whiz-bang stuff you got."

The FAA says the only alternative to this expensive system is gridlock.