The Automation of Air Traffic Control

Extract

Experience gained in the automation of air traffic control is of interest from more than one point of view, and not only because of the range and diversity of new and delicate problems to which this application of automation has given rise, and for which it is necessary to find simultaneous solutions. It has been necessary to design and develop new methods for the acquisition, processing and display of information and to link them with digital computers, for which a complex and voluminous ‘real-time’ software has had to be compiled and brought up to date without interrupting the procedure. But it is when it comes to visualizing the total pattern that the most difficult problems arise because the major decisions determining the success or failure of the operation have had to be taken without the possibility of acquiring any preliminary experience.

Man and the computer have to work together in real time as harmoniously as possible to obtain the best results from the modern data processing systems that it was proposed to employ; it was therefore essential to consider very deeply the complementary roles which each was intended to play.

To describe this research in detail or the solutions arrived at would not be of great interest to those other than specialists.