Controlling The Crowded Skies

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29401, 31 December 1960, Page 4

Controlling The Crowded Skies

[By the Air Correspondent o 1 the “Financial Times”! (Reprinted by Arrangement)

The collision of two airliners over New York earlier this month has focused renewed attention on what has become one of aviation’s biggest problems—achieving safe and smooth air traffic control.

It has never been an easy problem to solve, and it is becoming more complicated—and expensive—every year, for several reasons. First, the number of aircraft involved is multiplying rapidly as air travel continues to expand, and secondly, the aircraft involved are becoming bigger and faster.

Today, almost every major airport in the world, in the course of one day, experiences movements by aircraft with speeds ranging from that of the DC3 to over 600 m.p.h. for a big jet airliner. All these aircraft have to be fitted into the strictly limited volume of space available in the vidinity of an airport. Airlines’ schedules have to be met, any hazards afforded by the weather have to be overcome, and 100 per cent, safety must always be the aim.

Inevitably, the system sometimes fails, although as the accompanying tables show, in relation to the total volume of air traffic the failures are few. But when they do occur—either as a result of human error on the ground or in the air, or by some structural or mechanical trouble in the aircraft—they are inevitably serious. For many years, various devices—technical and physical—have been adopted to try to eliminate even the possibility of such failures. Many manufacturers have spent large sums in research on new and improved air navigation and control equipment, such as radars and communications aids, and all major airports now have these installations in quantity. “Airways”

On the physical side, airliners are obliged to fly along complicated patterns of “airways”—

Air travellers have now become accustomed to delays while their aircraft are “stacked” in specific holding areas —such as Epsom and Watford for London Airport—to await their turn to land. Delays at many airports—notably Chicago and Idlewild (New York)—are increasing as aircraft have to join lengthening queues on the taxi-ways, waiting to take off. As air traffic continues to expand, these delays seem certain to continue, and passengers will have to accept them as part of the price to be paid for the efforts made to achieve maximum safety. Adding to the difficulties of lack of room in the sky, and increasing numbers of aircraft of differing size and with widely varying speeds, is the airlines’ own natural desire to schedule their flights to meet the passengers' convenience. “Rush Hours” There are “rush hours” in the air as well as on the ground in the mornings and evenings, and they are becoming a serious problem, straining ground handling arrangements, as well as air traffic control. It has long been suggested that one way of easing this situation would be the greater staggering of schedules. To some extent, pooling agreements among airlines help to overcome the problem, but much more attention