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BECKLEY — What a contrast is coming in the days ahead.
Over in Fayette County, tucked away inside the ridges of razorback mountains, are row after row of Army-style pup tents, put up so incoming Boy Scouts can rough it for a 10-day stretch known as a jamboree.
In Beckley, the scientific world turns its high-tech energy on all cylinders in an experiment that could revolutionize the way small airports help pilots land and take off.
This is known as the trial run for a “virtual tower.”
Put simply, this is a means of assisting incoming and departing pilots via the use of computers, in lieu of actual bodies inside a tower placed strategically on the apron of an airport.
If the concept proves workable, it could provide the Raleigh County Memorial Airport the impetus it needs to aggressively go after federal dollars to turn an idea into reality.
Watching over the experiment — set for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — will be an engineer from the Federal Aviation Administration’s research center in Atlantic City.
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