FedEx is ahead of the F.A.A. in testing a system that uses global positioning to guide airplanes to precision landings.
As the increasingly addled Bernard, in a permanent state of damage control, Mr. James leaps and scurries about the stage, arms gyrating in mad, semaphoric maneuvers that could be used to guide airplanes to their gates.
At first sight it looks like badger-baiting, but with nerds: a cluster of slightly overweight men and mysterious women, shuffling around in a courtyard just off of Brick Lane, parrying and thrusting with things that resemble those neon-tipped sticks you guide airplanes onto the runway with.
These Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities, known as Tracons, guide airplanes on their final approach within 30 to 50 miles of the airports, providing instructions for pilots regarding altitude, direction and runway heading and to make sure there is enough space between flights.
A teenager scrambled into the street near a downtown hotel, waving his slender arms at an oncoming car as if he were guiding an airplane to the gate.
In the game, you guide an airplane through a brightly-colored landscape designed by artist Ricardo Cavolo, who also worked on the album's artwork.
Take airplanes, for example.
Using Alvarez's dipole antenna to achieve a very high angular resolution, GCA allows ground-based radar operators watching special precision displays to guide a landing airplane to the runway by transmitting verbal commands to the pilot.
Mr. Sullenberger's airplane, an Airbus A320, was nearly capable of guiding itself gently to the ground, even after losing both of its engines.
While Mr. Putin's interest seems more recent, Russian ornithologists have experimented with using slow-flying airplanes to guide captive-bred cranes to the south since 2002, the newspaper Vedomosti reported.
