Each plane gels a preflight check.
Here, jet exhaust is being inspected.
Safer Skies
(Continued;
I have in mind the crash of a plane
last fall, killing 22, mostly young foot
ball players and students from Cali
fornia. The plane's pilot, who died in
the crash, had been the subject of re
cent FAA hearings which convinced
examiners that he had violated regula
tions and demonstrated a lack of re
sponsibility and judgment. We revoked
his license, but he continued to fly,
pending his appeal to the Civil Aero
nautics Board as permitted by law.
But the fact remains that he and 21
others died despite the evidence that
he had previously demonstrated bad
judgment. How long should the public's
security have to wait for the surrender
of lesser personal interests?
The Congressmen who wrote our
aviation laws had in mind a noble ob
jective and a procedure for achieving
it. One of them said: "Regulations are
Irksome things . . . but the test must
be the protection of the public.
"Any tendency to proceed with cau
tion in promulgating and enforcing reg
ulations to promote safety must be
avoided at all costs, even at the risk of
being charged with undue harshness . . ."
If private interests as well as public
officials would accept those principles,
we could hope for greater safety.
What a boon to air safety it would
be if FAA personnel could spend their
time in pursuit of urgent technical and
scientific objectives instead of having
to rebut wild charges and pressures!
Technical Development Needed
Besides money and men of good will,
we need machines.
Safety in our skies demands greater
harnessing of electronic instruments to
flight objectives. A few are already
here, and others are on the way; but
some present problems continue to
baffle modern science.
One innovation which is nearly here
is a blind-landing system. Todny, we
have only a blind-approach system; it
brings you to the airport's threshold.
This is not a landing system. The final
12 Family Weekly, March 19, IMI
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A third new device is symbolized by
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the FAA research center near Atlantic
City, N.J. It contains a special radar altitude.
designed to determine the altitude of tower can
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aircraft within its range. FAA radars
now show only a plane's direction and
distance. When this new device is per
fected, it will add the third dimension
relation to every other, and safely as
sign different levels to pilots who enter
the area. With good luck, this instru
ment should be in use by 1963.
Then a controller in his Perhaps the most significant safety
"fix" each craft precisely in development of all is the system I
mentioned in my letter of resignation
to President Eisenhower. In brief, it is
an electronic brain called a data-processing
central. Nicknamed the DPC, it
is really a memory system into which
is fed the flight plan of every plane in
its control area. Then the "brain" takes
over, calculates arrival time over check
points, probes the airways for potential
conflicts, assigns alternative routes if
trouble lies ahead, and keeps records
on the positions of all aircraft. The first
DPC will be installed at the FAA Bos
ton control center this year, and is ex
pected to be operating by 1962.
Identifying Planes "
Finally, there is the transponder.
Consider the problem of an air-traffic
controller who sees from 20 to 50 iden
tical blips representing planes on his
radar screen. Until recently, no practi
cal method existed for distinguishing
one aircraft from another. Occasionally,
a puzzled controller would ask a plane
to perform some unique maneuver and
then watch for it among his radar blips.
The transponder reinforces the radar
signal and adds additional marks to its
appropriate blip. When the pilot pressed
a button, for example, an electrical de
vice creates an effect which is visible
on the radar screen and permits the
controller to identify the blip.
Why not put a transponder in every
plane? FAA rules now require airlines
to install all-weather radar, costing up
to $25,000 each. The regulation flight
recorder now required by every pas
senger plane costs from $5,000 to $7,000.
Transponders are presently in use in
passenger jets. Whether to add them to
all craft in view of other forthcoming
instruments is a question now under
study by the FAA. Congress will un
doubtedly examine it when they pass
on future expenditures.
The Program Can Work
In the beginning I observed that the
air-safety program stemmed from three
thi ngs men, machines, and money. As
a private citizen, I now feel that Con-,
gress keenly realizes its responsibilities
for suppying funds which will enable
the FAA to meet the requirements of
aviation today, next year, and 10 years
hence. This gift to the American public
lies in their powerful hands.
As for those men who represent spe
cial interests, I would remind them of
the deeply felt admonition of Rep. Oren
Harris, given the year before Congress
passed the Federal Aviation Act in 1958.
He said: "In achieving maximum safe
ty standards possible in the public hf
terest, all segments of aviation have a
responsibility to give and take for the
common good."
Only selflessness and love of human
ity will dissipate the political and emo
tional pressures which some individuals
continue to exert against certain aspects
of the FAA safety program.
If we are to be truly safe in our skies,
euery leader of every segment
America's great aviation industry must
act with a good conscience.
Family Weekly, March 19, 1961 1)
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