I was an electronics tech (RADAR) in the Navy, and ended up maintaining GCA (Ground Controlled Approach), or PAR (Precision Approach RADAR) which brought A/C in the last 10 or so miles in fog, rain, whatever. Tonight I was searching around, looking for details of GCA in the Berlin Airlift, which I knew was where and when GCA REALLY made it's mark in the world. The system was pretty much invented during the last of WWII
The Berlin Airlift - Air Force Magazine
Great read
The airlift lasted 15 months starting in '48, the year I was born. The allies flew 277,000 flights at a cost of 77 personnel lost. The delivered over TWO AND A HALF MILLION TONS of various goods, food, fuel, etc into Berlin.
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This quote from the article regarding GCA approaches:
“On an eight-hour shift, I would talk down three blocks of 28 C-54s, roughly one a minute,” Haluska recalls. “The weather was zero-zero and after landing, a cleat tractor would have to tow the aircraft to the loading zone because the pilot couldn’t see the lights on the taxi strips.”
Day after day, week after week, cargo volume soared and delivery records tumbled as airlift operations reached a crescendo. On April 6, GCA crews at Tempelhof landed one airplane every four minutes over six hours, setting a record for sustained high tempo operations.
Within eight months, American aircraft had completed 36,797 Ground Control Approach landings on the Berlin Airlift.
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Photo of representative GCA unit at Adak, AK. The truck of course moved the RADAR if it needed to be re-sited on a different runway, and usually there would be a trailered diesel genset behind. The truck had spare parts for the RADAR and a small desk for paperwork. The middle trailer had a huge AC unit, ducted by flex duct to the rear trailer, workbenches for equipment repair, and storage of service manuals, cables, and spare RADAR component chassis, which could be swapped in quickly in case of emergency failure.
The braces from the rear trailer are for wind. Bear in mind that the PAR gives ELEVATION information so the trailer must be level.
All the operations equipment was in the rear trailer, 3 operating positions, each with a search display (top) and the Az-El PAR/ GCA display (bottom). Each operator had the use of a UHF and a VHF aircraft band radio transceiver. On the upper display, the "pie" shaped section at the bottom of the display represents the approach area to the runway. The bottom display, the upper half is El and the lower half is Az. That represents approximately 10 miles from touchdown. Range markers are 1 mile each
The Berlin Airlift - Air Force Magazine
Great read
The airlift lasted 15 months starting in '48, the year I was born. The allies flew 277,000 flights at a cost of 77 personnel lost. The delivered over TWO AND A HALF MILLION TONS of various goods, food, fuel, etc into Berlin.
=================================================================
This quote from the article regarding GCA approaches:
“On an eight-hour shift, I would talk down three blocks of 28 C-54s, roughly one a minute,” Haluska recalls. “The weather was zero-zero and after landing, a cleat tractor would have to tow the aircraft to the loading zone because the pilot couldn’t see the lights on the taxi strips.”
Day after day, week after week, cargo volume soared and delivery records tumbled as airlift operations reached a crescendo. On April 6, GCA crews at Tempelhof landed one airplane every four minutes over six hours, setting a record for sustained high tempo operations.
Within eight months, American aircraft had completed 36,797 Ground Control Approach landings on the Berlin Airlift.
=====================================================================
Photo of representative GCA unit at Adak, AK. The truck of course moved the RADAR if it needed to be re-sited on a different runway, and usually there would be a trailered diesel genset behind. The truck had spare parts for the RADAR and a small desk for paperwork. The middle trailer had a huge AC unit, ducted by flex duct to the rear trailer, workbenches for equipment repair, and storage of service manuals, cables, and spare RADAR component chassis, which could be swapped in quickly in case of emergency failure.
The braces from the rear trailer are for wind. Bear in mind that the PAR gives ELEVATION information so the trailer must be level.
All the operations equipment was in the rear trailer, 3 operating positions, each with a search display (top) and the Az-El PAR/ GCA display (bottom). Each operator had the use of a UHF and a VHF aircraft band radio transceiver. On the upper display, the "pie" shaped section at the bottom of the display represents the approach area to the runway. The bottom display, the upper half is El and the lower half is Az. That represents approximately 10 miles from touchdown. Range markers are 1 mile each
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