Tcas and the Irascible Genius Who Invented It

Book excerpt: As air travel grew exponentially in the years after World War II, the chance of airborne collisions increased. The risk became dreadful reality for most people in 1956, when two commercial planes flying out of Los Angeles collided over the Grand Canyon, killing everyone aboard both flights. Two years before this tragedy, when few had even imagined the risk, J.S. Morrel had already developed the mathematics for, and published a famous paper, describing a system that could have prevented this and many future air tragedies. J.S. Morrel spent years refining, defending, and advocating for his life saving Traffic Collision Avoidance System for Airplanes in Flight, or TCAS for short. Unfortunately, it wasn't until 1989, many years after his death, that TCAS became widely adopted and required. TCAS continues to save countless lives using the same basic principles that J.S. Morrel developed. At work, Morrel was an irascible genius. At home his children found him difficult to live with and his wife seemed resigned to live in the way Morrel dictated. In all aspects of his personal and professional life J.S. Morrel used his anger and intellect to control the lives of those around him. In the case of his family, he exerted his domination both emotionally and monetarily. In this intimate memoir, Morrel's daughter explores the roots, life, and lasting achievements of her father as no one else could. She contrasts the genius who knew brief but world-wide fame for ideas, which still save millions, with the man who's angry domineering nature often caused pain in the lives of those who knew him the best. Morrel's invention is now on nearly every commercial aircraft in the world, both passenger and freight, and can be credited for making midair collisions a thing of the past. Anyone who has ever flown-or flown in-an airplane will enjoy the little-known story of the man and his invention helped make air travel the safest mode of transportation.