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
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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
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