When sociologist Diane Vaughan received permission from the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to observe and interview air traffic controllers in the Boston area, she never could have guessed the project would last two decades. However, that's how long it took the Columbia University professor to complete the work that would form the basis of her book, Dead Reckoning. At 574 pages, Dead Reckoning's length reflects the length of the project itself. "Dead reckoning" is often used in the book as a generic term for what controllers do. "Dead reckoning is about foresight," wrote Vaughan, "predicting the position of objects in space and time by deduction, without benefit of direct observation or direct evidence." It is like a controller in the Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) tower looking out the window at an inbound aircraft, and knowing instinctively that the plane is going too fast and has to slow down.
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