Electronics World articles Popular Electronics articles QST articles Radio & TV News articles Radio-Craft articles Radio-Electronics articles Short Wave Craft articles Wireless World articles Google Search of RF Cafe website Sitemap Electronics Equations Mathematics Equations Equations physics Manufacturers & distributors Engineer Jobs LinkedIn Crosswords Engineering Humor Kirt's Cogitations Engineering Event Calendar RF Engineering Quizzes USAF radar shop Notable Quotes App Notes Calculators Education Engineering Magazines Engineering magazine articles Engineering software Engineering smorgasbord RF Cafe Archives RF Cascade Workbook 2018 RF Stencils for Visio RF & EE Shapes for Word Advertising RF Cafe Homepage Sudoku puzzles Thank you for visiting RF Cafe!
Innovative Power Products Couplers

Radar Network for Air Traffic Control
February 1957 Radio & Television News Article
February 1957 Radio & TV News
February 1957 Radio & Television News Cover - RF Cafe[Table of Contents]

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919 - 1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), born in 1940 and now known as the Federal Aviation Administration (since 1958), was established originally to regulate the burgeoning commercial airline and cargo transport air traffic as well as the private aviation activity. According to an FAA document, on April 3, 1947, CAA controllers began in-service evaluations of the ground approach control (GCA) radar system at Washington National and Chicago Municipal airports. It was commissioned for officially use by the CAA on January 7, 1952, at Washington National Airport. This story from a 1957 edition of Radio & Television News reports on the system upgrade to long-range radars that would permit, eventually, continuous coverage across the entire USA.

Radar Network for Air Traffic Control

CAA orders 23 long-range radars in biggest single electronics gear purchase.

Radar operators scan skies on long-range radar - RF Cafe
Radar operators scan skies on long-range radar. Shown on the scope are air lanes connecting cities. Planes appear as light spots. Electronically projected map overlay enables the operator to pinpoint plane's position.
A major step in a sweeping plan for improvement of the nation's air traffic control system was taken recently, with announcement by the Civil Aeronautics Administration of an order for 23 long-range radars, biggest single purchase of electronic equipment in the agency's history.

The radars are the heart of a CAA plan announced last April by Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks. The plan is designed to handle a fourfold increase in U. S. air traffic with minimum delay and maximum safety. The new radars will help CAA controllers accomplish this by scanning the skies for all aircraft up to 200 miles away, depending on size and altitude.

Raytheon Manufacturing Co. of Waltham, Mass., will design and build the equipment, which will cost approximately $9,000,000. Deliveries will begin this summer.

Giant 40·foot search antenna to be used with the new radars - RF Cafe
Giant 40·foot search antenna to be used with the new radars. This antenna will be equally effective for jet operation at 35,000 feet and higher or for low-altitude slower aircraft./td>
The 23 radars will be part of an expanding coast-to-coast traffic control network of more than 70 civil and military radar installations. The network will give controllers a picture of aircraft from 15,000 to 70,000 feet in virtually all the U. S. airspace, and of aircraft at lower altitudes on densely traveled routes. Thus, radar will serve to track the civil and military jets which move at 600 miles an hour or more in the higher altitudes, and the conventional aircraft traffic using the lower altitudes.

Each radar uses a large 40-foot antenna, and effectively covers more than 125,000 square miles of area. A single set will be able to feed up to 15 different monitor screens simultaneously, so that each controller on duty in a CAA center can have a picture of traffic movement. At present, with the exception of the radar-equipped New York and Washington centers, CAA controllers depend on position reports radioed in by pilots en route. CAA also has radar for surveillance around 34 airports, which will continue to serve traffic within a range up to 30 miles.

The new equipment employs either linear or circular polarization of the radar signal so as to minimize the effect of rain or other bad weather interference. Another feature is an improved moving target indication arrangement that removes radar echoes from fixed objects, thereby allowing signals from moving aircraft to show up clearly.

CChances of breakdown are reduced because of the use of dual controls and functioning parts, allowing uninterrupted operations.

New radars are to be installed at 23 of the 28 heavily circled areas - RF Cafe
New radars are to be installed at 23 of the 28 heavily circled areas
shown below. Remaining 5 areas will use military gear. Light
circles show future coverage.






Posted  July 15, 2013
Windfreak Technologies ConductRF Precision RF Test Cables - RF Cafe
Rohde & Schwarz USA (Signal Generator Pocket Guide 2) - RF Cafe Axiom Test Equipment - RF Cafe
About RF Cafe
Kirt Blattenberger - RF Cafe Webmaster
Copyright: 1996 - 2024
Webmaster:
    Kirt Blattenberger,
    BSEE - KB3UON

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The Internet was still largely an unknown entity at the time and not much was available in the form of WYSIWYG ...

All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.

My Hobby Website:  AirplanesAndRockets.com

spacer