News — Aviation
How a control tower works: Managing takeoffs and landings
This story is the second installment of a two-part story about how control towers work. We previously covered how the tower controls aircraft on the ground. Air traffic control towers loom above airports worldwide. Some of them are spectacularly designed; there’s even a coffee table book dedicated to visually stunning examples. One that’s unique in appearance (and apparently “controversial” when it was built in 1996) is LAX’s sun-bathed control tower, standing some 277 feet above the ground. I recently visited the tower and met with the team there to learn how they work. It was fascinating. LAX Tower has 36...