How does an airport use radar?
A visit to an airport is as exciting as a circus. You watch a plane take off and before it is lost in the wide blue sky, another is ready to land. The pilots seem to know just where and when to go and this is because they can depend on the airport’s radar system to guide them safely to and fro. We may watch the planes landing and leaving, but we may not visit the control tower where the air traffic is directed. This traffic office is a high room with glass walls that give a wide view of the airfield and the sky above it. If we were allowed inside, we would see a number of round radar screens. Each one is watched by an expert operator able to think fast and keep his mind on his job. Visitors are not allowed because they would disturb these experts. The radar screens show just where all the planes are for miles around the airport. Planes fly fast and the traffic picture changes. Operators must keep up with this changing scene and also know the whereabouts of all the planes and vacant run
