236. GPS Was Never Military-Only: Debunking the Myths with Richard Easton

Forget Korean Air 007: GPS was always meant for civilians.

What if everything you thought you knew about GPS was wrong? Far from being a secret military tool reluctantly unlocked after tragedy in 1983, GPS was designed with civilian use in mind from the very beginning — and surveyors were using it years before most of us had heard of it.

Paul Bavill welcomes writer and researcher Richard Easton, co-author of GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones. With a unique perspective — his father, Roger Easton, is one of GPS’s credited inventors — Richard debunks the biggest misconceptions about GPS and reveals the surprising story of its development.

You’ll discover:

• The Civilian Myth: Why GPS was never “military-only” — and who used it first.
• The Korean Airliner 007 Story: Why the 1983 tragedy did not open GPS to the world.
• The Lonely Halls Meeting: How the tale of GPS being “invented over a weekend” simply doesn’t hold up.
• Selective Availability: Why the US government deliberately degraded civilian signals — and why that ended.
• The Bigger Picture: How GPS fits into a global system alongside GLONASS, Galileo, and Beidou.

Join us for a myth-busting conversation that rewrites the story of GPS, replacing legends with the truth of politics, persistence, and surprising civilian allies. To dive deeper, grab Richard’s book GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones.

👉 https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10120/9781640123076

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