Cochran Field Control Tower

Cochran Field Control Tower. . The control tower ensures the safe, orderly and expeditious operation of ground traffic in the immediate area of an airport or airfield. Tower controllers give pilots taxing and take off instructions, air traffic clearances, and weather advice based on information received from the National Weather Service, their own observations, and other sources. They provide separation between landing and departing aircraft, transfer control to en route controllers when aircraft leave their airspace and receive control of aircraft entering the control area around the airfield. The control area varies from three to thirty miles, depending on the facility., This control tower was erected by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941 at Flying School No.1, later renamed Cochran Field, just south of Macon, Ga. During the Second World War Cochran Field was operated by the Flying Training Command as a Basic Flying School. After the war, the field closed and the land was turned over to the city of Macon to become the Lewis B. Wilson Airport. During the next four decades the tower and its equipment went through many overhauls and updates to keep current with rapidly advancing technology., In 1986 the airport become the Macon Regional Airport and a new control tower was built to handle the increasing air traffic. The original tower was disassembled and moved to its current location here at the Museum of Aviation in 1988, through the efforts of the 202nd Engineering Installation Squadron, 402nd Civil Engineering Squadron, 244th Aviation Regiment of the Army National Guard at Hunter AAF and the Robins AFB Officers Wives Club. It was restored to the way it appeared shortly before its deactivation, largely by donations from the Exchange Club of Macon in honor of General Robert L. Scott, Jr on 20 May 1993