New Windows for Orlando Airport: 1,000 Pounds Each, 300 Feet Tall, Requiring Crane to Install
Orlando International Airport’s air traffic control tower is getting new windows for better visibility.
It’s a tall task.
When built nearly 20 years ago at a cost of $28 million, the 345-foot tower was higher than any other in the nation. It has since been eclipsed, including by Atlanta’s airport tower, but is still among the tallest in the U.S.
Replacing the windows near the top of the tower, at the cabin where air-traffic controllers are perched, requires a crane. Each pane is 7 feet tall and 7 feet wide and weighs 1,000 pounds, or a half-ton. There are 16 of them.
Costing about $1.2 million, the replacement work is expected to run through next month, according to a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, Orlando International Airport is opting for an alternative to a control tower, and ever having to replace windows, at the $2.7 billion south terminal under construction. It’s about a mile away from the original terminal and air traffic control tower.
Instead of building another tower at the south terminal to oversee movements of jetliners on the ground, the airport is buying a system that will rely on 14 cameras and aircraft tracking devices.
Working 24 hours a day, controllers will occupy a room at the south terminal watching monitor screens instead of looking out windows.
The FAA directs aircraft while on runways and taxiways. But when airplanes are on adjoining areas, or ramps, and at gates, they are under the control of pilots, airports or airlines. Orlando’s new system is called virtual ramp control.
Bob DeBaere, assistant director of Orlando airport operations, said Fort Lauderdale’s airport has such a system and one is being installed at Los Angeles International Airport. Both of those belong to the airports. Yet another virtual system is operated by United Airlines in Houston.
Debaere said he is unaware of any other virtual system in the U.S.
The Orlando International Airport virtual ramp control is expected to cost nearly $4 million.
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