Air Traffic Controller

Guides aircraft safely through takeoff, landing, and flight — managing crowded airspace.

Did you know?

In the United States, air traffic controllers must retire at 56, and new controllers usually have to start training by age 31.

Mathematics: Work out speeds and distances so planes stay a safe gap apart as they line up to land.
Physics: Understand how wind and air pressure change a plane's speed and which runway it should use.
Communication: Give pilots clear, standard radio instructions and check they read them back correctly.
Geography: Know the local airspace, hills and airports so you can send planes around bad weather.

Archie League: Generally considered the first US air traffic controller, starting in St. Louis in 1929 with signal flags.

Lay the paper strip on a table or the floor as your runway. Mark a parking area beside it where planes wait, well clear of the runway.
Use the phone compass to find which way each end of the runway points. Number each end by its direction without the last zero: an end pointing west (270 degrees) is 27, and the other end (090) is 09.
Decide which way the "wind" is coming from. Planes take off and land into the wind, so choose which runway end to use.
Be the controller: your pilot may only move a plane onto the runway when you clear it. Land and take off three planes one at a time, never two on the runway together.

Air traffic controllers pick the runway in use from the wind and clear every aircraft by radio, so only one plane uses a runway at a time.

Also try: Test-fly two paper planes.

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