Common System Standards

The words ¿Common System¿ have come to mean something very explicit in air user circles. They refer to a system of three parts for air-traffic control, navigation, and communication for the use of all aircraft, military and civil, in the skies over the United States. To date many ¿black boxes¿ have been invented as small parts of the system and these have been ¿worked into¿ the otherwise undefined system. Just as the television industry some years ago found need for a standard for the ¿signal in space,¿ users of the air need signals in space defined for the three parts of the common system. The following materials suggest the method of producing these standards so as to release the development laboratories on actual equipment design to utilize signals to be radiated or received on aircraft and on the ground in the manner best suited to the particular application at hand.