In the summer of 1974 I was asked if I wanted to take a group of minority students from Boston to work on a project I was to do at MIT Lincoln Labs. This group became the first MITES class of minority students. I took the group and the project was to develop an airport surface tracking system using data we gathered at Logan airport.
So day after day we drove a big yellow van labelled Discreet Air Beacon System, DABS. Apparently the painter could not spell Discrete or else he really meant we were to be discreet. But my big yellow truck did get a lot of attention.
We tested our systems at Logan and compared the results to the rather archaic system in place. What I learned in that project was that the FAA was one of the worst Government agencies ever. It was using WW II technology and techniques then some twenty years later, and frankly little has changed.
The problem of ASTC is simple. Prevent collisions on the airport surface while maximizing traffic flow. The Hill recounts some of the recent near misses. Now some fifty years after my summer project I find that not much has changed. It appears that the troglodytes of the 70s have been replaced by the same team in the 20s. Perhaps worse!
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