four white walls photography

I was recently given a tour of the new tower at Sky Harbor Airport by Operations Manager Roger Mandeville. The tower is the fifth tallest control tower in the world checking in at 335 feet.

During the elevator ride to the top, I expected to emerge into a stress filled environment like the control room in the movie “Airplane”. I could see Robert Stack in a pilot’s uniform, smoking a cigarette, talking in a troubled flight.

I was in for a big surprise. No radar screens, no stressed out air controllers, and Robert Stack wasn’t yelling for coffee. Radar screens have been replaced with computer screens, air controllers seemed like they could have been working in any office, and there is no more smoking in Phoenix. Robert Stack is now appearing in heaven.

The windows in the tower have pull down polarization screens that give the tower windows that cool tinted look.

The highlight of the tour, was going out on the catwalk, one floor down from the control room.
We climbed though weird half-door and were standing on outside of the tower.

The Federal Aviation Administration records report that Sky Harbor had 41,439,819 commercial passengers in 2006 making it the eighth busiest airport in the United States and the eighteenth busiest in the world.