Evening star., 1954-11-07
Air|ines, Passengers
Complain Of Delays
As Traffic Mounts
By George Beveridgs

4OA yN1AGp OlChCA l41S
about a site, every one has been
saying Washington needs a sec
ond airport.
How great is the need? What's
happened during the years Of
pickering? A reporter went to
Washington National Airport to
get the answers. He found:
National is jamnled to capac-
ity. Month by month, it Is be-
ing called on to handle more and
more business. At times, the
volume far exceeds CAA stand
ards. Costly delays, to passen-
gers and airlines alike, have be-
come the rule rather than the
exception.
And unless new airport Is
found-and fast-the future Is
clear: Either the delays are go
ing to keep mounting by leaps
and bounds, or Washington SIM
ply isn't going to get the air
passengers who want to come
here.
$4,000 Landings and Take Offs.
In 1850, the CAA estimated
National would have 100000
commercial airline landings and
take-offs in 1855. It had 1884,
600 last year. And 1t handled
$1,000 additional non airline
movements, military. private and
VIP planes.
Only the advent Of mammoth
new airliners, like the DC-7s
and Super Constellat atoms, has
held the traffic volume within
manageable bounds. Because
Washington now ranks third in
the world In airline traffic. han
ding 2.3 million passengers
through September of this year,
compared with Ia million for
all Of 1913.
Total figures, however, don't
show Nationals real problem. It
is basically the same one the city
faces in trying to get automobiles
across the Potomac River.
For most Of the day, WASH
ington could get along fine with
three or four bridges. For the
morning and evening rush hours,
six or seven might not be enough.
Scaled for Peak Demand.
i. In the same way, the National
operation has to be geared to
handle several peak periods a
day, when the pressure really
is on. ,,
The common CAA yardstick
says National should not handle
more than 20 operations an hour.
That means pla1le taking off or
landing on the average of every
l12 minutes I'M Yush hours.
It's average in rush periods
now is 43. Even during the nom
peak hours from noon to 3 pm.
on one good afternoon last week,
the field handled 40, 20 and 80
operations respectively. IN, one
znerve-wrackiag period week
ago, however, the National con-
trol tower handled II landings
and take-offs in rs minutes. It's
all-time record, hit last sum-
mer, was SO in 60 minutes.
Those marks can be set by i'm
provising and split-second timing
= when they have to be. But the
CAA and the tower experts both
know 1t is shaving human capa-
bilities and the fields highly
limited facilities too close for
comfort.
Facilities Need Doubling.
The Air Transport Association,
representing the big airlines, says
the actual demand today would
send In So operations an hour If
the facilities were there. It fig
ures that within nine years the
air demand will require double
Nationals present facilities.
At Z pm. on the day of the
Stars visit, 1852 people were lined
up in the terminal with tickets,
but no reservations, hoping to
get space on outgoing planes.
Impressive as the statistics are,
the place to see the problem Is
the control tower.
At one point on that routine
afternoon, this was the situa-
ton:
Two four -engine planes had
just landed and were taxing to
unload. One plane was just
touching down on the 5,1O0-foot
northwest-southeast runway. Two
others, widely spaced, were easing
up the Potomac from the South
to come in. Another ship circled
over Alexandria awaiting clear
ance to land. Four other planes,
loaded with passengers and with
motors roaring, were lined I'D
waiting to take off.
One Runway In Use.
Within a minute, a new plane
would be coming into view for
landing clearance and another
ship would be ready to take of.
To handle them all, only the
single northwest runway was In
use.
And the job Of handling the
whole mess was in the hands of
three men in the control tower,
keeping up running contact with
all the planes on varying radio
frequencies.
In almost unbelievable time,
Robert Rudich, a fast-talking
tower veteran on duty as local
controller" had the temporary
bottleneck cleared UP and was
looking for new arrivals.
"And II you'n stick around Q
WHILE" he grinned. you'll see
that wasn't even congestion"
Three Busy Men.
While Mr.. Rudich waved
planes on and OF the single run
way, another towerman co-ordi-
rated takeoff data with q CAA
control center at the field. The