A small airport loses its old navigation beacon, changing how planes fly there

The FAA proposes to change the boundaries of controlled airspace around Beckley, West Virginia. This is because an old radio navigation beacon is being shut down, which means planes will use different methods to find their way.

For decades, air traffic control relied on a network of ground-based radio beacons to guide planes. The FAA is slowly decommissioning these older systems, moving towards satellite-based navigation. This small change in Beckley is a tiny piece of a much larger shift in how planes navigate across the country, making air travel more reliant on GPS and less on physical infrastructure.