REAGAN FIRES AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS, THIRTY YEARS AGO

REAGAN 

FIRES 

STRIKING 

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS 

August 5, 1981 

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS 

LEESBURG, VIRGINIA 

Published in the February 16, 1981, 

issue of BUSINESS WEEK (p. 83) 

How many times have I read that Ronald Reagan's firing of the air traffic controllers -- thirty years ago now -- was a crucial step in the diminution of the American labor movement? A recent analysis is to be found here. 

The Business Week article for which this photograph was an illustration was entitled "The race to head off an airline shutdown." 

More on air traffic control 

Then and now 

here 

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL USA, THEN & NOW & FUTURE

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL 

USA 

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER 

LEESBURG, VIRGINIA 

Published in the March 22, 1982, 

issue of BUSINESS WEEK 

Air traffic control is in the news again as the Washington Post runs a big story on NextGen that could be summed up as From Radar to GPS, and Whoa!  Not so fast.  (It's not so easy.) 

The photograph above was taken half-way through what the article describes as radar's sixty-year run as the basis of the air traffic system. 

More air traffic control here 

The FAA has more photographs and information here