The control tower
Essays on air traffic and the airfield: the first controllers, the accidents that changed the rules and the small conventions that keep the sky orderly.
- Alfa, Bravo, Charlie
Radio is noisy, and the letters B, D and P sound alike. A word list settled the matter.
- Why runways have numbers
A runway marked 27 points west. The number is a compass heading, and sometimes it has to be repainted.
- The Grand Canyon collision
On 30 June 1956 two airliners met in cloud over Arizona. The accident led to the modern American air traffic system.
- The first controllers
Before radar, controllers used flags, lamps and, at Croydon in 1920, a radio.