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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0194.PDF
184 FLIGHT International, 7 February i.ygj AIR COMMERCE Captain C. C. Jackson A FRESH LOOK AT PROJECT BEACON IN our recent issue of January 10, under the title "Flash in the Pan" we published the first o? a series of commentaries which will appear at intervals over the signature "C.C.J." The initials are those of Captain C. C. Jackson, executive secretary of the Inter national Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations. The present article, though not one of the new series, is by the same author. In it he takes a critical look at some of the proposals made in America's much discussed Project Beacon Report on the future control of air traffic. "AOURAGE, camarades, le diable est mart!"—as good advice to V a new columnist as it was to Erasmus, wandering as he was on highways unknown to him and not yet having committed himself to the disciplines of great scholarship. You will notice that there is no mention of qualifications, and with this prescription for a wide field of study I would agree. If one had qualifications to write on the operational field of modern air transport one would be so begirt with hesitations and inhibitions that one would never write anything. Perhaps that is why there are almost no writers on operations. But if qualifications are more of a liability than an asset, what is it that is needed to make a readable column on opera tional subjects? Kind friends would say that commonsense and confidence are what is required; the unkind would say conceit. Anyhow, there is nothing like plunging in at the deep end: so long as there is depth enough for manoeuvre and one does not find one self looking a fool, with head stuck in the mud, what matters? With this philosophy in mind, I picked up the American Project Beacon Report the other day. Plenty of depth and room for man oeuvre there, I thought. With practically no references quoted, no authorities, no equipment specifications, no paragraph numbers, only a very few subheadings, and only two appendices (one a glos sary explaining such highly abstruse abbreviations as ICAO, ILS, FAA but omitting "video," and the other giving little bio graphical sketches of the authors), it must have made pleasant bed side reading for President Kennedy. Indeed, I found it pleasant reading myself, provided I read it fast—as one can do for, mirable dictu, it has no split infinitives to give hiccups to the sensitive. But I gather that an official "analysis" of Project Beacon has now been made and that all its recommendations have been en dorsed. So, unless we are to await an evaluation of the analysis of the recommendations of the Report, or a review of the . . . etc, etc. it looks as if we should read Project Beacon more slowly. After all. it represents the endorsed views of the most expert personalities of the most aeronautically advanced country of the world and, judg ing by a recent ICAO meeting in Paris on the subject of secondary radar, it looks like exerting a great influence on, perhaps even set ting the pattern for Europe's air traffic control organization of the future. In setting myself this assignment I do not claim any of the exper tise of the authors of the Report. In fact, I have no more than a vicarious connection with air traffic control and my first reaction on going into any control room is to get out of it. About a year ago I ventured into New York Centre and have never been the same man since (I gather from one or two controller friends that I am not alone in this). But I try not to show this discomfiture and every now and then I fortify myself with the little exhortation at the head of this article. Indeed, feeling the need of some such encourage ment before getting down to the business of examining Project Beacon, I asked my thirteen-year-old daughter to track down the quotation; this she did in a couple of minutes and I see now why my mind connected it with New York Area Control. The passage read:— "So now the company drank garausses all round, and their tongues were unloosed, and oh, the Babel! But above the fierce clamour rose at intervals, like some hero's war cry in battle, the trumpet-like voice of theBurgundiansoldier shouting lustily,'Courage, camarades, le diable est mortP "Entered Ganymede holding in his hand a wooden dish with circles and semi-circles marked on it. . ." Obviously they had a very advanced radar. However, it would appear from the general setting that the environment was not con ducive to good work; and much the same clearly applies to US Area Control Centres, on which the Beacon Report says:— "The enroute system is presently not overloaded. However, it is inefficient and will reach overload along the busier airways within the next few years. . ."
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