User:B137/The freaking FCC

With a name inspired by Family Guy's freaking FCC song, this is actually more aimed at the aerial equivalent; the FAA. Compared to finanical and fantastical limitations, they seem to be the most restrictive. I was actually surprised while I was reading the Willis Tower article to find that the FAA is what limited the final design of the structure. It's not even 1500 feet and there were many towers of significantly greater height at the time. Then, they go and stick two huge 85 meter (279 foot) broadcasting antennas on it. Had it not been for the FAA, the design might have gone past the low hundreds.


 * At 13.2 feet per floor, the Sears Tower could have been 132 floors and been the same total height it reaches now, hindering no air traffic any more than it already does, if it really does at all.

Willis Tower
As Sears continued to offer optimistic projections for growth, the tower's proposed height soared into the low hundreds of floors and surpassed the height of New York's unfinished World Trade Center to become the world's tallest building. Restricted in height not by physical limitation or imagination but rather by a limit imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration to protect air traffic, the Sears Tower was financed completely out of Sears' deep pockets and topped with two antennas to permit local television and radio broadcasts.

KVLY-TV mast
Some time after its completion, the FCC and FAA imposed a policy that states, "Although there is no absolute height limit for antenna towers, both agencies have established a rebuttable presumption against structures over 2,000 feet above ground level." The FCC and FAA may approve a taller structure in "exceptional cases."