WASHINGTON — Congress finally has passed a bill aimed at prodding the U.S. aviation system into a new high-tech era in which satellites are central to air traffic control and piloted planes share the skies with unmanned drones.

The bill, which passed the Senate on Monday, speeds the nation's switch from radar to an air traffic control system based on GPS technology. It also requires the Federal Aviation Administration to open U.S. skies to drone flights within four years.

The House passed the bill last week, and it now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. The stability the bill offers on long-term, big-budget planning helps the country's commercial aviation industry, which accounts for about 5 per cent of U.S. economic output.

The bill authorizes $63.4 billion for the FAA over four years. It sets a deadline of June 2015 for the FAA to develop new arrival procedures at the nation's 35 busiest airports so planes can land using the more precise GPS navigation.

The system is central to the FAA's plans for accommodating a forecast 50 per cent growth in air traffic over the next decade. Most other nations already have adopted satellite-based technology for guiding planes, or are heading in that direction, but the FAA has moved cautiously. The U.S. accounts for 35 per cent of global commercial air traffic and has the world's most complicated airspace, with greater and more varied private aviation than other countries.

Planes with GPS navigation will be able to land and take off closer together and more frequently, even in poor weather, because pilots will know the precise location of other aircraft and obstacles on the ground. Fewer planes will be diverted.

Eventually, FAA officials want the airline industry and other aircraft operators to install onboard satellite technology that updates the location of planes every second instead of radar's every six to 12 seconds. That would enable pilots to tell not only the location of their plane, but other planes equipped with the new technology as well -- something they can't do now.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the bill "will provide the stability and predictability to ensure critical aviation safety programs ... and infrastructure investments move forward."

The FAA is also required under the bill to provide military, commercial and privately owned drones with expanded access to U.S. airspace currently reserved for manned aircraft by Sept. 30, 2015. That means permitting unmanned drones controlled by remote operators on the ground to fly in the same airspace as airliners, cargo planes, business jets and private aircraft.

Currently, the FAA restricts drone use primarily to segregated blocks of military airspace, border patrols and about 300 public agencies and their private partners. Those public agencies are mainly restricted to flying small unmanned aircraft at low altitudes away from airports and urban centres.

The bill's passage culminates a five-year struggle by Congress to pass a long-term FAA authorization bill.