It is set to replace radar in commercial aviation as the next generation of air traffic control systems come online by 2020.

BBC: The key to preventing lost planes

President Obama warned that the country's enemies were "seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions and our air traffic control systems".

BBC: President Obama

Since then, there have been questions about the country's underfunded air traffic control systems, deficient radar system and the airlines' ability to cope with a surge in travelers.

NPR: Nearly 200 Feared Dead in Brazil Air Crash

Another issue for current air traffic control systems is that they face interference from wind farms, which are increasingly springing up around the UK to provide alternative sources of energy.

BBC: UK mulls 'radical' shake-up of air traffic control

If there are thousands of these little aircraft buzzing around in the sky, will they terminally clog up air-traffic-control systems?

ECONOMIST: Travelling in an executive jet is just the ticket

And some nations, notably Brazil and Senegal, which were handling Air France Flight 447, don't yet have modern oceanic air-traffic-control systems.

WSJ: How New Air-Traffic Control Systems Operate Over Oceans

What with the court case, not to mention the fact that the next generation of air-traffic-control systems are still at least ten years away, passengers should continue to expect delays.

ECONOMIST: The government��s flight plan is temporarily grounded

Replacing outmoded radar-based air traffic control with more efficient systems has been possible for decades, but it has not happened.

FORBES: It's Time To Upgrade The Entire World's Infrastructure

The first transatlantic coupling could be an alliance of Thomson, a partly privatised French defence-electronics group, and Raytheon, America's fourth-biggest defence firm, with which it already collaborates on air-traffic-control and other systems.

ECONOMIST: Transatlantic aerobatics