Wed, Mar 12, 2008
Inventor Of TCAS Was 89
If you've ever been alerted by the urgent warnings from your
cockpit-mounted collision avoidance system, calling your attention
to nearby traffic you hadn't seen... you have George B. Litchford
Sr. to thank. The prolific inventor, who worked on aircraft
navigation and surveillance systems for some 60 years, passed away
February 28 at the age of 89.
Litchford was hired by Sperry Gyroscope Research Labs in 1941,
and set about trying to find a way to alert pilots to nearby
hazards. It was Litchford who determined signals from an aircraft's
transponder could be used not only by controllers on the ground,
but also by other aircraft... and the idea of the Traffic alert and
Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS, was born.
The need for such devices on commercial aircraft was clear to
officials, in the aftermath of a 1956 midair collision over the
Grand Canyon... but it took another 30 years -- until a midair
collision involving an Aeromexico DC-9 and a private plane over Los
Angeles, that killed 82 people -- before Congress mandated TCAS be
installed on all commercial aircraft rated to carry more than 10
passengers.
"He was an industry leader in developing one of the most
significant aviation safety systems ever designed," industry safety
consultant John Cox told The New York Times.
In addition to his work on TCAS, Litchford also earned a patent
for use of aircraft transponder signals by private, ground-based
tracking stations, to track the movement of aircraft. He licensed
the technology to a company called MegaData, which later became
Passur. The company now operates that system at 90 locations
worldwide, and airlines use that data to track operations.
Litchford, a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, also worked on developing a safer landing system for
use on US Navy aircraft carriers, and on equipment to help civilian
planes land in low visibility conditions.
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