LORAN

A relatively new development in electronically-supported navigation systems, the Global Position Satellite system, seems destined to replace LORAN C. During the years from 1978 through 1995 the United States launched more than two dozen specialized navigational satellites that each orbit the earth twice every day. These satellites transmit data that permit even portable handheld receivers and decoders to display latitude and longitude with great accuracy. The Global Positioning Satellite system provides better information than can be achieved using LORAN so it seems likely that the GPS system will soon render the LORAN system obsolete. LORAN will someday be found only in the history of electronics-based navigational systems but it will have served the world well for better than a half century.