The U.K. and the U.S. dogfight over a landing system
Flight 122 from San Francisco was approaching Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Dense fog shrouded the field, cutting the visibility down so much that even the control tower operators could see only inches beyond their windows. In earlier times, as late as 1980, the pilot would have circled in a fixed pattern along with other planes, perhaps for an hour or more, hoping for a break in the weather. Or headed for another city. Either choice would have been painful for nerve-racked passengers and costly for the airline. Yet the skipper of Flight...