How do planes not crash into each other like cars?

Question

The closest understanding I have to this is that pilots follow “sky highways,” but how do pilots know they’re still in their assigned highway? Doppler? GPS? Practice? Cloud magic?

PS please pardon me if the flair isn’t correct, I wasn’t sure what to file it under

In: 0

Answer 1

There’s a *lot* to this. Here are a few:

1. There are a lot fewer planes than cars, and there’s a lot more sky than roads, so the odds of a collision are very small. If you flew 100 miles in a straight line with your eyes closed you probably wouldn’t hit another plane, while if you drove 100 miles in a straight line with your eyes closed you’d *definitely* hit something with your car. But the consequences of a midair collision are so bad that many other precautions must be taken.
2. Planes contain a *ton* of technology to help them figure out where they are. They do have GPS, but they also can track a set of radio direction beacons on the ground — radio “lighthouses” designed for planes to use. Many of the big ones have radar that can detect other planes. They have radios to keep in constant communication with each other, and/or with a ground controller who can steer them away from other planes. And finally, there’s a new technology called [ADS-B](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Dependent_Surveillance%E2%80%93Broadcast) where each plane constantly sends out data giving its position, so it can be tracked by the ground and other planes even without radar.
3. There are a *ton* of rules to ensure safety. Planes are divided up into several categories based on whether the pilot is navigating visually or whether they have navigation instruments and the training to operate them, and there are tons of rules and controllers on the ground to make sure that pilots with imprecise navigation don’t come anywhere near passenger jets.
4. Training and paperwork. To drive a car, all you need to do is pass a simple test of basic driving skills, and a check to make sure the safety systems in your car work. Airplane pilots need hundreds or thousands of hours of training, constant checks and rechecks to make sure they’re qualified to fly, their aircraft have to be inspected and tested for mechanical problems constantly, and the penalty for even a minor break in the rules isn’t a traffic ticket, it’s they take away your license and you never fly again.