During 1960 the French civil and military authorities decided to coordinate their efforts and to step up the programme of research and practical tests on landing in poor visibility. They felt that they could best contribute to the development of air transport in this vital field by adding their own vigorous and intensive efforts to the considerable body of work already undertaken by other countries. Numerous automatic landings had already been made in the U.S.A., and the British Blind Landing Experimental Unit had made several thousand. Yet, in spite of the results obtained, many problems still remained unsolved and many questions unanswered. There was evidently still room for much more practical work and theoretical research.