The invention of GPS

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

There are few inventions that we rely on as much as the Global Positioning System, also known as GPS. But, when it was created in the late 1970s, nobody wanted it.

Prof Brad Parkinson and his team at the US Air Force built it, and the first GPS satellite was launched in 1978. However, GPS wasn’t widely used until an air disaster in 1983 highlighted the need for satellite navigation.

Nowadays, GPS helps countless people travel in the right direction. But, we also rely on it for many things you might not realise: it keeps aeroplanes in the sky, props up global trade, farming and construction, and even supports banking transactions.

Ben Henderson speaks to Prof Parkinson, "the father of GPS".

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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(Photo: GPS devices. Credit: George Wilhelm/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's got, she's
0:07.9	going to be shot.
0:09.2	I'm Helen Obalam Carter, and this is history's secret heroes, where I shine a light on
0:14.9	extraordinary stories from World War II.
0:17.6	What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
0:22.0	Tales of deception and incredible acts of resistance and courage.
0:26.2	She was a born soldier. She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense.
0:29.8	The brand new series of History's secret heroes. Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:38.8	Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Ben Henderson.
0:45.7	There are few inventions that we rely on as much as the global positioning system,
0:50.6	which you probably know as GPS.
0:52.7	But when it was created in the late 1970s, nobody wanted it.
1:00.5	This was the view of a senior official at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, at the time.
1:07.6	He was asked in a public meeting, well, what is the FAA going to do about GPS?
1:14.5	And he looked them in the eye and he said, we don't want it, we don't need it. And if it is
1:21.7	ever there, we will never use it. This is Professor Brad Parkinson, a former U.S. Air Force Colonel and engineer, also known
1:30.3	as the father of GPS.
1:32.3	And my junior officers heard this and came running in and said, you got to say something
1:38.3	to that guy.
1:39.3	He's all messed up.
1:40.3	And I said, no, I think what we do is show what it can do, and the world will come around.
1:50.3	Today, a new moon is in the sky, a 23-inch metal sphere placed in orbit by a Russian rocket.
	...

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