The Genesis of ATC

[Larry Dighera]

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ELECTRICAL-EXPERIMENTER-INDEX-SCANNED-4-1917_W0QQitemZ320162096035QQihZ011QQ

[Jay Honeck]

> http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ELECTRICAL-EXPERIMENTER-INDEX-SCANNED-4-1917...

1917, eh?

It's been downhill ever since...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

[Larry Dighera]

On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:21:23 -0700, Jay Honeck >
wrote in om>:

>> http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-ELECTRICAL-EXPERIMENTER-INDEX-SCANNED-4-1917_W0QQitemZ320162096035QQihZ011QQ
>
>1917, eh?
>

Well, Marconi was testing radio equipment installed in aircraft in
even earlier than that:

http://www.historyofpa.co.uk/pages/cw_iie_.htm#Achievements
Radio telephony in the air
An intrepid bird man of about 1912 carrying out wireless
telegraphy transmission experiments whilst flying around Hendon
aerodrome. In those early days, the apparatus was both primitive
and cumbersome, but it is on this work that the first
comprehensive system of wireless for air-craft has been founded.

And the US Army Signal Corps equipped some of their WWI aircraft with
radio equipment:

http://www.sparkmuseum.com/RADIOS.HTM
Western Electric SCR 59, 1917
Very early Signal Corp radiophone receiver, designed for use in
WWI aircraft.

Before the SCR 59, the Signal Corps used aircraft equipped with spark
transmitters to telegraph artillery positions to crystal receivers on
the ground. There's a photograph of such a spark transmitter at the
bottom of this page:

http://www.sparkmuseum.com/RADIOS.HTM
BC-15A
1918
First transmitter (spark gap) designed for aircraft, designed for
use in aircraft. Used in WWI.

And here:
http://www.stonevintageradio.com/description.php?II=30&UID=2007092810474024.254.82.152

There's a photograph of the crystal receiving set at the bottom of
this page:

http://www.sparkmuseum.com/RADIOS.HTM
Deforest BC14A
1917
The BC14A was designed for use as an artillery spotting receiver
during WW1. The BC14A was designed for use as an artillery
spotting receiver during WW1.

And here:
http://www.stonevintageradio.com/description.php?II=29&UID=2007092810501924.254.82.152

Thus reliable air to ground radio communication was achieved entirely
without the use of vacuum tubes!


>It's been downhill ever since...
>
>;-)

To the extent that politics, personalities, and skills influence the
effectiveness of ATC, there is opportunity for error and improvement.
But personally, I'd prefer to have the additional eyes of a controller
scanning for conflicting traffic than not, so I don't see ATC as
contributing to diminished functionality for aviators.