European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 4, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Do to Magazine. Sky Highway and the air planes Hying them show up on map and round monitoring screens at Otto Federal air route traffic control Center near Washington . Corr Trotter at 30 Tuch centers throughout Trie contiguous United states Are responsible Tor Safe Low of traffic in the nation s airways the world s busiest. It s a big Busy sky up there Alum byjoe Waschenbach National gun Jar an cd Elta 429. Proceed direct Pulaski on course Continental 615, climb and maintain Light level 310 31 .000 feet. American 946, increase your descent. Usair410, Contact Washington Center  it s the atari of afternoon Rush hour in some of the nation s busiest airways. The Crisp commands from a controller at Iho Washington air route Frallic Contro Center near Leesburg a Are part of the nationwide system thai keeps planes irom Hying into one another while in the Moat heavily travelled airways in the world the skies aver the Conterminous -18 Stales. The 20 Federal air route control centers responsible Lor the Safe flow of Ira flip together logged a record 33 6 million flights in 1966 the four busiest centers Atlanta Chicago Cleveland and Washington Oach handled More than 2 million saturday april 4, 1987 a complicated network of invisible highways and  is suspended in midair comply so with Aerial equivalents of underpasses overpasses. Access lanes dangerous intersections both Lonecke. Dolours and morning and evening Rush hours unlike highways on Ino ground airways Are three dimensional and multilayer cd. Stacked Ono on top of the other up to 45.000 eel. Above Hal Altitude Only the concorde special military aircraft and spy planes routinely Fly. More than 330,000 Nau Licat Miles of controlled airways crisscross the skies As part of the National airspace system. The Federal aviation administration has divided them into nearly 900 numbered routes. Are we running out of airspace no in e a big sky up there says Charles r Reavis manager of Washington Center. Bui there Are limes during the Day when the system is taxed in  in Washington censer airspace which extends from Northern new Jersey to South Carolina Aboul 60 percent of the raffle tunnels through the airways Between 2 . And 7 ., monday through Friday. Sky highways Are officially 8 Miles wide and planes Are supposed id Fly straight Down the  or As close to it As possible. Airways Are split into Low Altitude Victor v routes below 18,000 feel and High Altitude Jet j routes both with their own sets of maps and rules of the Road. Non commercial pilots Hying Low Altitude routes for instance Are not required to me High plans and frequently Fly under visual flight rules see and avoid other aircraft. At High altitudes All aircraft Fly under instrument flight rules requiring an approved Light plan and Enro Ute radar control by the 20 Faa centers. Airline jets taking off irom Washington and Baltimore airports heading West or Southwest must first Fly Over Casanova a and then head out j42 to Dallas or turn left onto j48 for Atlanta of Bear right to j149 for Chicago. Casanova is a fix Point along with Pulaski va., and More than 1,000 other Portac visual omnidirectional Range tactical stations throughout the country. These ground based radio navigation aids signal spots and their traffic controllers with the precise position of the plane. Air routes run from Portac to Portac and planes Fly from one station id the next unless cleared by the controller to bypass when traffic is Light. To keep aircraft safely separated while in the airways the Faa requires them to slay at least five Miles apart fore and All Wing tip to Wing tip. At Jet Speed live Miles is just seconds of Hying time aircraft flying below �9,000 feet must be 1,000 feet apart vertically up where the air is thinner above 29,000 feel a minimum of 2,000 feet is considered Safe. To avoid head on midair collisions eastbound planes Fly at even altitudes 22,000 feet of example those heading West Fly at Odd altitudes. But above 29.000 feet they Fly Only Al alternating Odd altitudes the two biggest influences on the airways in the Las decade have been the 197b deregulation of the airlines and the 1981 air traffic controllers strike. With More planes in the sky and fewer con Rolles aircraft Are being kept farther apart than the minimum five Miles often 10 to 20 Miles sometimes As much As 40 Miles. The airline Industry is pressuring the Faa to reduce these in Trail restrictions and move More planes More speedily through the airways. Few safety s Sake since the strike the Faa also has slopped airborne holding. Instead it has put the bum Perlo bumper traffic on the ground wailing Al airports. Ii there s bad log in new York Well hold a transcontinental flight on the ground in los Angeles. Ii new York can land Only 20 planes an hour Well make sure Only 20 gel there says James h. Loos Faa technical adviser for air traffic. Such decisions Are made by Central flow control at Faa Headquarters which monitors airways nationwide and has taken a More Active role since the strike. To open up congested East coast coast airways where traffic is the heaviest in the nation. The Faa added some new routing in Early 1987. On the ground. T would be like pulling parallel interstates along the new Jersey Turnpike from now York to Washington Reavis says. There was Only one Jet route Down the Shenandoah Valley above interstate 81. Now there arc  the stars and stripes Page 13