Improved air traffic control techniques, particularly GCA, were critical to the success of the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49. With the new system, controllers could provide better and safer traffic flow into and out of airports. Until then, radar had been used only to confirm a pilot's reported position. Radar Departure Control made its debut at Washington's National Airport in 1952. By 1951 the use of radar had begun to supercede pilot-reported positions by radio. civilian control tower equipped with radar began operating at Indianapolis Airport in 1946. Radar ("radio detecting and ranging") was developed by the British in the 1930s and widely used during World War II. The first U.S. Ground controller monitors radar to guide aircraft to land. ILS greatly reduced missed approaches and flight cancellations due to weather and enabled airports to handle more traffic. With ILS, a pilot relied on instruments that received altitude and direction data via radio transmissions and allowed the pilot to follow a glide path to the runway. The Civil Aeronautics Authority in 1947 adopted the Instrument Landing System (ILS) as its primary landing aid, supplemented by GCA at busy airports. Although GCA was popular with the military, airline pilots preferred the competing ILS system. GCA was placed into operation at Washington's National Airport and Chicago's Municipal Airport in 1947. With Ground Control Approach (GCA), a ground controller followed an approaching aircraft on a radar screen and instructed the pilot down to the runway. Touching Down Safelyīy World War II's end, two precision landing systems were available for civil use: Ground Controlled Approach (GCA), which used radar, and Instrument Landing System (ILS), which used radio transmissions. In November 1941, with World War II sweeping through Europe and Asia, the federal government assumed responsibility for all towers deemed vital to the war effort. The Department of Commerce took over their operation in mid-1936, and within a year eight centers were in full operation coast-to-coast.Īn airway modernization program was launched in 1938, and airport control towers became a familiar sight. Two more soon opened at Cleveland and Chicago. In December 1935, the airlines established the first Airway Traffic Control Center at Newark, New Jersey. By February 1931, the entire New York to San Francisco route was equipped with radio range stations. In the 1920s, the first low-frequency radio range beacon experiments were conducted along National Air Transport's New York-Chicago route. New navigation techniques were needed to allow aircraft to fly reliably and safely at night and in bad weather. However, a series of highly publicized accidents in the mid-1930s, including the crash of a DC-2 in which New Mexico Senator Bronson Cutting was killed, highlighted the critical need for a national system. The federal government stepped in, and in 1936 the Commerce Department accepted nationwide responsibility for air traffic control. The first control tower to use ground-to-air and air-to-ground radio communication was built in 1930 at Cleveland Airport.Īs the popularity of air travel grew, so did the need for better air traffic control along the nation's air routes and especially around airports. Airlines first developed systems to control their own air traffic.
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