In Pictures: A Look At New York JFK Tower, Inside And Out

The ATC tower at New York JFK International Airport is 320 ft. high and was built in 1992.

Photographer notes: “I used to love coming up to the tower to watch the action. On this particular morning, Kennedy was on the 4's as evidenced by an American 767-300 about to taxi into position on runway 4L. On the IAB hardstand is an El Al 747-400, which arrived earlier in the morning from Tel Aviv.”

Photographer notes: “I used to love hanging out in the tower at night, watching the landing and takeoff action and taking night shots.”

Photographer notes: “Sam Kohn (now retired) works 119.1 (tower freq) on a nice VFR morning. Sam was the controller on freq when the first Concorde flew into JFK and he was also on freq when the last Concorde flew out of JFK!”

Photographer notes: “This is what controllers see (this is a portion of the entire screen at JFK tower) on ASDE-X even if operating in zero/zero visibility. This is the newest technology for ATC. Every airplane on the field's transponder is being picked up by radar and reflected on the screen. If any airport vehicles breach a runway, they will be visible on this screen. Note that areas in red reflect closed taxiways (construction/repair). At the time this photo was taken JFK was operating on the 4's and there was light snow falling (RVR4000).”

Photographer notes: “Shown here is the full screen view of ASDE-X display at JFK. At the time runway 4L was used for departures and 4R for arrivals, most of which turn off and hold to cross 4L at taxiway Golf as they proceed to their gate. This is run-of-the-mill stuff for ATC, but for aviation enthusiasts and future air traffic controllers to see what the fine folks at JFK tower look at as they do their job is really neat!”