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FAA: Big Tech Challenges For Massive Washington, DC Warbirds Flyover

Posted by samzenpus on from the blast-from-the-past dept.

coondoggie writes: It will be one of the largest gatherings of flying WWII aircraft in history as 56 famous vintage warbirds will fly through restricted airspace over the National Mall Friday in remembrance of the 70th anniversary of VE-Day or Victory in Europe Day. The huge flyover, dubbed "The Arsenal of Democracy," of so many different types of aircraft – from seaplanes to fighters and the only flying B-29 Superfortress – was no easy undertaking. The first plane should be visible along the National Mall around 12:10 p.m. With roughly 90 seconds between formations, the Flyover will end by 1 p.m. Reagan National Airport will be closed to commercial traffic from 12 noon to 1 p.m. to accommodate the flights. The Flyover will be streamed live here.

3 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How much does this cost taxpayers? by Deadstick · · Score: 3, Informative

    Basically, a few thousand gallons of gasoline. The airplanes are privately owned.

  2. Re:What tech challenges? by tlambert · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't get it, what is the big tech challenge to overcome here? Seems like the biggest issues are legal (exemptions from the FAA already made though) or logistical.

    Lack of modern istrumentation, radar transponders, and other equipment which is normally used by modern air traffic control systems. You will recall that the newly overhauled system went online 7 days ago (30 Apr 2015):

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

    The primary issue won't be in the corridor itself, it'll be getting into and out of it from shared public airspace, and avoiding collisions between the aircraft themselves, many of which do not have anti-collision systems or even radars.

  3. Arsenal of Democracy Ignorance by istartedi · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm seeing a lot of ignorant comments about the phrase "arsenal of democracy". Please educate yourselves. This phrase comes out of the WW2 era in which these birds flew. Manufacturing weapons was a huge part of the US contribution because we could do it without having to worry about Axis bombers hitting our plants. The AoD helped kill the Axis. Please try to separate it from the modern issues. This is history we're talking about.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?