As a result, no radar record of the breakup exists-only of the metal rain that drifted down over East Texas, and eventually came into the view of air-traffic control.

But delays and inefficiencies in air travel are due in large part to an outdated traffic-control system that still relies on slow, ground-based radar stations and repetitive voice communication.

Gradually being deployed worldwide, ADS-B improves upon the radar-based systems that air traffic controllers and pilots rely on to find out the location and velocity of aircraft in their vicinity.