[JHof]

Even the newest airliners of today still triangulate their positions off of radio beacons (VORs) as a backup to the GPS system and also contain an inertial system. GPS being the most accurate, it's normally the primary navigation system, however, I've flown across the country, beacon to beacon, with the GPS inoperative, which some airliners still do from time to time.

In the southwestern US, especially, GPS often becomes unusable due to military activity. It isn't uncommon for an airliner to experience a loss of GPS signal mid-flight when operating near military exercises. It's just the nature of our system.

It was a good article. I enjoyed the allusions to ships on a sea, and moment before landing described as an unanswered question. I'm wondering if this will be passed along much in the pilot community. The most popular 'pilot life' creation in recent memory seems to be this Lego parody - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNxz2hhSXuY.