Landing a fighter plane on an aircraft carrier has always been highly dangerous as the ship is constantly moving on a heaving ocean. The task of guiding the approach and landing the aircraft would be made easier with a computer aided system. However, the signals between the ship and plane are subject to interference and jamming.
James Waid and colleagues from Honeywell International (US) have just patented a new system which employs GPS satellites to plot the relative velocity and position of both the aircraft and the ship. An additional feature of the system includes the ability to extrapolate the data forward in time to predict if the pilot can safely land his plane or whether he should abort the landing.
