How it works:

The gyro motor was one of the first instruments used for navigation in airplanes. Though it was very reliable in cases when the pilot could not depend on landmarks, it drawbacks were that the pilot had to calculate a new location's co-ordinates if he had a change of destination. In other words, while it succeeded in providing real-time data for calculation of co-ordinates, it failed to provide real-time information on the plane's actual position. But with improvements in the instruments, it has not gone out of use and is still an essential part of most planes, in the event of failure of electronic guidance systems.

The electronic systems used today for guidance are GPS Systems.