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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 1957)
BIX MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Timdiy, April 18, 1957 Aviation Industry Racing Against Fast Expanding Air Traffic, Control Editor'! note: FoIIowinr is th - nil of a strip of five articles deal in i with overcrowding of the na tion's airways. BY ROBERT J. SEHLING United Press Correspondent Washington ;U.R) The avia tion industry and the federal government are engaged in a missive assault on the air safety problems resulting from grow ing congestion of the airways. It is a grim race between fast exanding air traffic and devel opment of new methods to con teal that traffic safely. 9'me goal is two-fold: 5 plug some of the bigger kfc9hole3 in the present air ftfjCtic control system, which is t$T decades behind the times. Te establish a brand-new con trol system that will handle not 3taS1J current traffic, but also S?iS be adequate for the age of Jet transportation less than two yssy away. " ete first goal appears to be Oftcofe difficult than the second & &mmercial airliner takes off ffs lands in the United States gvery five seconds. The job of protecting that kind of traffic volume with makeshift, stopgap methods is tougher than long range planning for airways of the future. System Modernized The loophole-plugging action consists mainly of a S246 million program for partial moderniza tion of the air traffic control system. It is under the direction of the Civil Aeronautics Ad ministration, which already has compressed it from an original five-year project to three years. In addition. CAA has asked Con gress for more money, including $132 million for a radar naviga tion and communications system called "Vortac." With its initial $246 million authorization, CAA is buying: Surveillance radar to speed up approaches and landings at 70 airports. 40 now have such equipment. Precision approach radar and instrument landing systems for 191 airports. Surface radar detectors for 70 airports-equipment which en ables control towers to monitor and speed up ground traffic. New approach lighting for more than 200 airports. Even this emergency pro gram, however, is too far in the future to handle traffic of to day, next week or even six TV GIVES ASSIST Tokyo (U.R) Kazuo Satake, catcher for the Kokutetsu base ball Swallows, got an assist from television Sunday. Satake col lided with a runner at home plate and the TV announcer re ported that he suffered two broken teeth. A dentist, watch ing the game at home, promptly called the stadium and offered to open up his office to treat the ball player. Use Mail Tribune Want Ads The Low Cost Way To Sell months from now. And under the prodding of the airlines, the military and the pilots union, CAA is now taking a look at its own operations to see if it can utilize more efficiently the pro cedures and equipment it al ready has. Air Delays Reduced Recently, a special committee c o m p o s ed of representatives from the airlines, armed forces, CAB, CAA and the Airline Pi lots Association (ALPA) studied air traffic control operations at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. The group found that in one 30-day period, scheduled flights, in and out of LaGuardia were delayed a total of 850 hours. The committee recommended certain procedural changes and personnel instruction. In the ntxt 30 days, under almost identical weather and traffic conditions, delays at LaGuardia were cut to 230 hours. "This shows what can be done with existing techniques and equipment," an ALPA official told the United Press. "The big gest bottleneck to safe move ment of air traffic is located at the airports themselves." Even such steps as led to the LaGuardia improvement are ad mittedly stopgap, however. So are proposals by APLA to revise many air traffic regulations in order to reduce drastically the number of flights in which pi lots are told to fly under "visual flight rules" and take the entire responsibility for avoiding other traffic. Under "instrument flight rules," air traffic control centers assume the responsibility of keeping flights safely separated. Present Method Archaic But adding to instrument flight operations merely makes a bad situation worse. The basic trouble with the air traffic con trol system is that the 26 con trol centers must keep track of some 3,000 daily flights with an archaic manua1 system. As each instrument flight moves from one controlled air space to another, a controller passes a slip of paper represent ing that flight to a second con troller. He stacks the slip on a rack in front of him. It is his job to keep all his slips prop erly spaced so there is no danger of collision. For each slip rep-1 resents a multimillion 'ollar air- j craft moving scores of passeng-1 ers at varying altitudes at five ' miles a minute. ; This manual system of "slip-1 passing" becomes an almost sup- erhuman task in bad weather ' and in heavy traffic moving in j and out of airports. And this is where the plans for the future j come in. They are being blue printed by two special govern- j ment groups: I The Air Coordinating Com-1 mittee, composed of representa-! tives of nine federal depart-1 ments. This group is reading a report known as SWG 13 (Spec- j ial Working Group 13) which will contain recommendations for improving the air traffic situation for both the immediate and long-range future. President isen hower's Aviation Facilities P 1 a n n ing Group, headed by Edward P. Curtis of Eastman Kodak. About May, 1, this group will issue a long range,, comprehensive plan for controlling air traffic of the future. From these two reports will come the major solutions for the air traffic problem. Their con tents are still secret, but it is known that they will call for all electronic control of air traffic through the following means: All-Electronic System Needed Long-range radar to enable control centers to monitor the movements of all aircraft-prev-ate and military. Giant e 1 e ct r o nic brains which will take the place of the present manual system of traf fic control. Into these brains will be fed the various flight plans filed by pilots and approved by control centers. The brains then would automatically com pute commercial flight paths so air liners would arrive at destina tions at exactly the right mo ment to avoid "stacking.". Any variance from original flight plans such as a pilot reporting delay because of a balky engine, would automatically be fed into the brains which would prompt ly set up a new flight path. Communication recording devices for cockpits, so that pi lots will not be distracted by the heavy volume of verbal reports that now take place between control towers and planes in flight. Experts say an all-electronic system is badly needed for the air traffic of today. When the giant jets start flying, it will become an absolute "must." Tom orrow: Are modern planes built safely: Why do new planes develop mysterious "bugs?" 1 TMWW 3 "itrmiWM M:f' if 1 Chuck Luhring-young man getting up in this world Just over a year ago, when Chuck Luhring decided to look into telephone work, he knew littlabout it. But because he showed good promise, he was hired and trained with regular pay. Today Chuck's a telephone lineman with a solid career ahead of him. In a business where management comes up from the ranks, there are lots of chances for promotion. The work is steady, and the pay keeps up with advancement To Chuck, these things make a good job. And the fact telephone jobs are good, pays off for you, too. It means capable people are attracted into the business. And this means better service for you. ".7 1 "Classroom in the sky," where Chuck Luhring got his train operators, installers, etc. Giving good people good train training, is one of many telephone schools on the Coast Others ing is another way we see to it your service is in capable hands. T Forking together to serve you better . The men and women of Pacific Telephone in Med ford MEDFORD Pemey's Go With Confidence Go Gaymode! If its Style.. .if it's Quality..! 66 GAUGE ULTRA SHEER GAYMODES 1.25 Slek Gaymods 66-gaug ultra sheer give the meit of everything at Penney'i lowest possible price! Double-loop . 2 threads where there used to be one for double the wear! Full-fash ioned. Sizes 8V3 to 11. SHEER STRETCHABLE KNEE HIGHS 98 Whisper sheer Gay modes that gfv you freedom from garters . . at a penney price that won't strain your budget! 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