Evening star., 1946-10-31
- s ee
Airport Traffic
Likely 70 Swamp
Landing Aids
$200, 900 Rodur
Undereoes Tests
As Crcss-Check
ByW.H. Shipper. Jr.
Axiafion Editor Of The SfaE

AS (fcSS-(neck
ByW. H. shippen. Jr.
Aviation Editor: Of Ths Star
Booming : tranic threatens tt
swamp bad-weati1ef landing aids al
National Airport this winter, despite
new improvements.
The soc, 900 radar to be installed
by January ! If possible is an aux.
iliary at best, receiving its first com.
naercial service tests.
1t will be used at first as a cross.
check on another innovation to &c
into operation atSthe same time. ar
instrument landing system which
throws OUT II radio glide path for
pilots unable TO see the runway.
Both systems, the radar ground
controlled approach, or GCA, and
the ILS, were thoroughly proved
during and after the war by military
pilots operating under orders and
calculated risk acceptable to the
airlines only under emergency con-
ditions.
Is NO Ofuef IS flannc0.
Nobody in the Civil Aeronautics
Administration. which installs and
operates the ground instruments, is
going TO order a commercial pilot
to- do anything If such an order
can possibly be avoided. And pro-
fessional pilots, who place . high
value on their individual Judgment,
dislike the idea Of being talked
down" by Federal employees, even II
they do have radar eyes,
Thus the new GOA, to be installed
as Washington, New York and Chi
cago, will be used only to check
positions on request, as an emerg-
ency standby and as a bad-weather
aircraft spotter for control tower
personnel, although talk down"
procedure is 4 matter of routine at
Army and Navy fields equipped with
much older models.
With commercial traffc expected
to double this winter. bringing a
corresponding rise in weather cam
cellations estimated to have cost the
airlines SIS, 100000 last year, the
critical race to provide ample land
ing aids finds the CAA handicapped
If not actually crippled by lack of
funds. This years appropriation for
radar and radio development work
was $4,000, not enough to buy and
install one of the three new GOA
sets.
Air Forces Aids CAA.
rrVI,@ " Trrcac hnuounr
came to the CAA's aid with a loan
Of the three new sets being COM
pleted under contract at the Gil
fillan Bros, Inc, plant at Los An
geles and the Navy and Air Trans
port Association are helping with
the installation.
The CAA, which has asked for
. new development appropriation
of almost a million dollars, hopes
to be in a position to purchase the
GOA sets during the next fiscal
year. ~ @ Fesss As sss~ III w. -s
The new sets, it was said, can be
operated by one man, as compared
to five or six required by older
models. The operator in the con-
troll tower sits before two radar
screens, one of which scans the
horizon to show him all aircraft and
ground distractions within 80
mile radius. The other looks" up
the glide path from the end OF the
runway, revealing the distance. al
titude and direction of all planes
In the landing approach
This information, in the improved
models, lis relayed to the control
tower from radar sets located in a
mobile unit on the field. The CAA
Is sending technicians to the Gill
fillan factory for training In the
operation and maintenance OF the
complicated equipment Any plane
with two-way radio can use the
"talk down" system, which corrects
deviations of only few feet from
the exact glide path.
Ills Sets Important.
OF more general importance, In
the opinion of CAA Administrator
T. P. Wright, are So Ills sets sched-
uled to 20 in operation by January
l at as many commercial ARR orts.
Passenger transports now are being
equipped with receivers to pick UP
glide path and directional beams
and show them on a dial whose
horizontal and vertical pointers
cross at right angles when the air
craft Is on the proper course.
The winter will be well along,
however, before the new aids can be
expected to do much to break up
costly traffic jams which have
grounded Washing bound planes
as far oil as Chicago, Miami or
Boston while others circled the air.
port In holding patterns or were di-
verted to alternate airports.
The devices must be tested and re-
tested and pilots trained to rely upon
j, them when flying blind at speeds up
to 800 miles an hour with SO or more
passengers at their backs. Mr..
Wright believes the new instruments
eventually will speed up bad-weather
landings to some 80 an hour as COM
pared with the present four or five.
The war interrupted the CAA's
development work on aids to COM
mercial flying, and at the same time
opened up almost unlimited pos
sibilities, especially in the field OF
electronics, where billions were spent
on new ideas.
The CAA, with its modest, peace
time budget, is confronted with a
bewildering array of gadgets either
lin production or well within the
grasp of the engineers. To stand
ardize on one design Is especially
difficult when much simpler, cheaper
and more efficient methods lie just
over the horizon.
For example, the CAA was in the
midst of changing over to very high
frequency on Its radio ranges, to
eliminate static distortions and give
pilots visible as well as audible direc-
ton indicators, when q new omni-
directional range was developed.
just now, methods are being de-
veloped to hook automatic pilots to
radio range and landing approach