International Airports Get New Control Towers

They may be thousands of miles apart but the UK’s Manchester Airport and Vietnam’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport shared in the recent commissioning of brand-new control towers. The new 197-foot-tall tower at Manchester (the UK’s second tallest after Heathrow’s) was a birthday present for itself as it went operational at the end of June on the airport’s 75th anniversary. At the airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city, the new tower rises nearly 230 feet. Construction began in December 2009, and the project cost more than $19 million (U.S.).