Building safety into 'blind' landings.

The article focuses on the effort of airlines to step up plans for electronic devices that will land airplanes safely in all weather. As far back as 1951 engineers were making autopilot landings for landing with no visual references. Aircraft electronics system developers estimate the cost of equipping one plane with such equipment at as high as 200,000 dollars. A three-step program has been created by the International Air Transport Association and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for getting aircraft down to the ground automatically.