Japan plans to implement an airplane navigation system that builds virtual multilane highways in the sky, making flights shorter and safer.
The Sky Highway system would be linked to global-positioning-system satellites, enabling aircraft to locate their position with far greater precision than now. It would put flights in parallel lanes, find the shortest routes and reduce flight congestion, the Asahi Shimbun reported Tuesday.
Under the system, targeted for introduction by the end of 2007, the airspace above 32,800 feet would be reserved exclusively for wide-area navigation, with aircraft arranged in multiple lanes running in the same direction.
Recent midair near misses were blamed partly on congestion resulting from the present system based on radio signals from ground stations, which put flights on a relatively inefficient zigzag course.
The new navigation system could shorten the distance between planes, allowing up to five times more commercial aircraft to ply the same route.
