The Gladys West Project: The Brain Behind GPS & World Global Satellite Systems

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Gladys Mae West, also known as Gladys Mae Brown, paved the way for the world's current GPS (global positional system). We use GPS daily, whether on a road trip or traveling on an airplane. 

Photo: Adrian Cadiz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Born in Virginia, Gladys had a humble upbringing and spent much of her youth helping her family farm and plow the fields in rural areas of Virginia. Watching her father work long days to keep the farm steady had shown h...