Aviation: To Control the Swarm

U.S. airports swarm with planes—in the air and on the field—while the nation conducts a search for solutions to a dangerously growing traffic jam. When Congress convenes next month, it will see one new proposal—a Senate Aviation Subcommittee call to spend $3 billion immediately, a total of $7 billion by 1975. Having just completed two months of hearings—the first thorough congressional review of airport problems since 1958—Subcommittee Chairman Mike Monroney says: "Every witness conceded that we are in a state of crisis."

The panel's report will urge creation of a U.S. trust fund for the air, similar to the federal...