WHAT:
Air Traffic Control Tower
WHERE:
Historic Croydon Airport, Purley Way, Croydon, CR0 0XZ, UK
LOCATION:
WHEN:
The Tower was erected sometime between November 1920 and February 1921
WHO:
The Air Ministry
DETAILS:
On the 25th February 1920 the Air Ministry detailed the specification and construction of the world’s first technical building to control air traffic, the “Aerodrome Control Tower”, to be installed at Croydon Aerodrome. This was also the first time that the “Control Tower” terminology was used. The Air Ministry specification stated that the “platform of the tower to be 15 feet above ground level”, “have large windows placed in all four walls”, “with a “wind-vane to be fitted to the roof of the hut with a geared- down indicator placed inside”, “enabling the control officer to read changes of wind”. The world’s first Air Traffic Control Tower was born.
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