Most books on GPS are quite technical and concentrate on the satellites and/or receiver design. This book is about user equipment evolution from expensive, complex and voluminous military sets to today’s low-cost chips buried in our cell phones. It traces a system designed primarily for military and civilian aircraft, ships and land vehicles to an essential utility of everyday life, enabling new businesses, more safety and the ability to track everything that moves. In parallel with the evolution of GPS is the evolution of commercial air travel as experienced by the author, starting from a flight on a Pan Am 707 in 1963 to a recent one on an Air France A380. Part II is a memoir written for the GPS community, people who have met or been influenced or educated about GPS by the author and anyone else interested in this facet of GPS history. It describes the tribulations that accompanied the development GPS user equipment and some of their first applications. What makes the book an autobiography is the inclusion of Part I, which is for the authors friends and family and anyone else interested in his early development.
