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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0314.PDF
208 LONDON W: RADAR Long-range Radar Monitoring Service Centred at London Airport : First of its Kind in •••••-. ' the World ^ r. Along one wall of the control room isarranged a battery of eight P.P.I, consoles, and the controllers sit at their speciallydesigned desks back to back with the P.P.I, operators. THE fact that the initial concept of radar was British,and that our pioneer work in this branch of electro-physical science was the cardinal factor of our suc- cessful defence during the early days of the war, makes it particularly fitting that we should again be the leaders in a field of radar application which promises to be of first importance in civil aviation. On February 22nd the long-range radar unit which is to be known as "London Radar " will go into operation, and it will be the first service of its kind in the world to become an integral element of routine airline operation. At the present time, the air space over this country is divided into five Flight Information Regions (F.I.R.s) within each of which, around the terminal airports, there exist busy areas which are denned by law and are known as Control Zones ; all aircraft operating within the Control Zone boundaries are provided with traffic separation and The twin parabolic-section aerials mounted at the top of their25-ft tower rotate at a speed of four revolutions per minute. flight information. International regulations lay down that, when flying in F.I.R.s in bad weather, aircraft must observe the " quadrantal rule" (see diagram), whereby the height of each aircraft varies according to its heading. Within the F.I.R.s the quadrantal rule is supplemented by a traffic-control service known as Informative Control. Air- craft using this service are required to report their position regularly, so that their proposed flight path can be co- ordinated with those of all other aircraft known to the Air Traffic Controller. - Explanatory diagram of theQuadrantal Rule. Height is governed by heading ; forexample, an aircraft flying on a heading of 80 degwould be at an odd- thousand-ft altitude, whilstone heading 260 deg would be flying at an even-thousand plus 500ft altitude. The Informative Control service is, however, purely voluntary and, therefore, the efficiency of traffic co-ordina- tion is dependent upon the number of aircraft voluntarily reporting. .The Air Traffic Control Centre at Uxbridge provides at the moment an informative control service for all aircraft within the south-eastern F.I.R. and for all air- craft at an altitude above 5,000ft in the south-western F.I.R. The inauguration of the long-range radar unit at London Airport will augment the existing control service from Uxbridge, and it is intended that the flight plans of aircraft using the informative service will be co-ordinated, not only for those aircraft who declare their proposed flight plans to Uxbridge, but for all aircraft visible on the radar screens. The area covered by London Radar varies according to the height at which an aircraft is flying, and according to the individual size of aircraft, but in approximate terms, the coverage can be quoted as: — Height Radius of coverage (nautfcal miles)(feet) Single-engined a/c. Four-engined a/c. 2,000 . . . . 28 . . . . 37 5,000 . .. 47 .. .. 59 ; 10,000 .. .. 71 .. .. 89 20,000 . . .. 93 .. .. 132 -_ As an additional safety measure it is proposed that, •where possible, aircraft able to communicate with the
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