Why is LATCC situated in West Drayton?
I've often wondered exactly why LATCC ended up in the middle of a council estate in West Drayton? Asked the question many times to various ATCO's whilst in LJAO and heard various replies. The only one that made any sense was when a very elderly ATCO suggested that the old Heathrow T264 radar was the limiting factor. He reckoned that when they
were planning the Linesman/Mediator project back in the early 1960's, the technology to transfer radar displays any distance was very limited. As the T264 on the northside of Heathrow airport was planned to be one of the main radars in the system, and the politians wanted the centre near London, someone stuck one end of a bit of string on the T264, drew a big circle around it and then started looking for Crown Land inside the circle. Their eyes alighted on a dissued RAF Supply Depot in the middle of a council estate in West Drayton and the rest, as they say, is history. Anyway, that was his story and it seems plausible enough to be true - anyone got any better ideas?