Evening star., 1936-11-01

| Ill q oCdI VI OIlC
n of the largest airliners, gazing
idly out the window into the flicker of
dazzling sunlight, blank whiteness of
cloud. then more dazzling sunlight.
They were flying in and out of broken
clouds, those huge puffballs of a hot
summer sky. Suddenly, in flash of
! sunlight, the man snapped to his feet.
The other passengers glanced curiouSly
at him as he stood with his nose glued
to the window-gazing into blank
whiteness, for they were now passing
through another cloud.
Smith (his name was Smith, and he
was flight superintendent of this air
line) slumped back into his seat and
reached for handkerchief to wipe
beads of cold sweat from his hands
and face. A scant so feet below his
window he had seen the flash of sill
ver-winged transport plane. headed in
the other direction. 1t had been just a
flash at their passing speed of mile
in 10 seconds, but Smith pictured in
his mind those two planes meeting,
instead of missing each other by so
feet!
Smith knew that there was no one to
blame. For years pilots had flown
about as they pleased, helter-skelter,
caring little where the other fellow
| was It was only the year before that
| pilots had been training for blind fly
| ing in special small planes, learning
| that they could go up through clouds,
inc ctyrIp re fn
| the plane in stable flying position,
| come out on top, follow the radio
beacon to a destination, and come
down through the clouds as they ap-
| preached the airport. Now, nearly, all
transport pilots had passed their
examinations in instrument flying, and
most of them were flying the air lanes
through solid sloudS. when necessary,
without even a glimpse of the tops or
bottoms of the clouds or any sight OF
the ground.
THIS near-collision in the clouds
added to the gray in Smiths hair.
and it brought to his attention major
problem that pilots and airline offi-
cials had not foreseen: How to pre-
| cent collisions in mid-air. With sew
| eral airline companies flying the same
routes, particularly on approaching
major airports, with these planes all
seeking the best flying altitude, and
all following the same radio beacon
through dense clouds where there was
no chance of seeing each other, the
chances of collision were decidedly
something to worry about. A radio
station at each airport, acting as traf-
fic supervisor, was no longer sufficient
to safeguard planes in flight.
In few days Smith had related
his experience to the heads of all the
major airlnes. And they were wor.
ried, so worried that they agreed to
set up a cooperative airways control
to provide equipment, personnel and
rules.
Marker radio beacons were placed
on each route about 40 miles from
large airports; these were called
check-points. All planes were re-
quired to estimate the time of reach
ing a check-point and their expected
altitude, and, after passing check
point, to report by radio their alti-
tude and exact time of passing over.
An airways control Office was, estab-
lished to assemble all the informa-
ton as received from the various air.
lines, and to give out this information
where it was needed, keeping every
plane in flight informed as to position
and altitude of all other planes along
or across his route. Inbound planes
were required to obtain permission to
proceed before passing over the check
point and approaching the airport. In
the event Of radio failure on an
airplane, all other planes were warned
to give that plane right-of-way.
IT WAS soon found that, in addition
to all this, standard set of flight
rules was needed. These were added
as need was discovered. They provide
that planes bound in one direction