Definition
Real-time data describing an aircraft's position, altitude, heading, and velocity while it is airborne, broadcast or computed for use by pilots, controllers, and automation systems within the National Airspace System.
Plain English
Up-to-the-second information about exactly where an airplane is in the sky and how it is moving, available to both the flight crew and air traffic control.
Context Anchor
Seen in NextGen discussions about using modern navigation and tracking systems to know an aircraft’s position during flight.
Why Pilots Care
Supports real-time traffic awareness and separation in modern airspace.
Intuition Check
Do not read this as general information received while flying. Here, “positioning” means information about the aircraft’s location in the air.
Example Sentence 1
ADS-B Out broadcasts in-the-air positioning information so that ATC and nearby equipped aircraft can see exactly where the airplane is.
Example Sentence 2
The system uses in-the-air positioning information to maintain safe spacing between aircraft on approach.