Billy Guckian's Adventures

Final Blog: Flying Smart Examined As stated before, there is a huge problem in the aviation industry today. Its not emissions or how many people these airliners can hold, the main problem is the pilots. Back in the 1950's after World War II ended most of the Air Force pilots went to become pilots and the atmosphere was more of a luxurious experience than it is today. According to Sam McManis who interviewed William Stadeim, who is the author of Jet Set: The People, The Planes, the Glamour and Romance in Aviation's Glory Years  said "Even in economy (class)-tourist class, I guess they called it-those seats would be the best premium-economy or business class today" (McManis, 2014). Passengers were greeted with seats having copious amount of leg room, exquisite dinners like lobster, caviar and other expensive food even smoking was allowed in the airlines at this time. It really felt that aviation was in the golden years during the 50s and 60s. Fast forward to now an

ATC Privatization           According to Craig Freudenrich from howstuffworks, "During peak air travel times in the United States, there are about 5,000 airplanes in the sky every hour. This translates to approximately 50,000 aircraft operating in our skies each day" (Freudenrich, 2001). The question is how does ATC deal with so much traffic each day without having any emergencies or collisions in the sky? The United States deals with airspace by dividing it into 21 zones and within each zone are TRACONs (Terminal Radar Approach CONtrol). These zones also have their own airspace with a 5 mile radius around it and this airspace is all ran by the FAA. There are Air Traffic Control System Command Centers, Air Route Traffic Control Centers, Terminal Radar Approach Control, Air Traffic Control Towers and Flight Service Stations. All of these stations and approach controls have to be able to work in unison for flights coming in or taking off safely. The way these air traffic c