LONDON CITY Airport (LCY) is now using a remote digital air traffic control tower to manage aircraft operations, with all take-offs and landings directed by air traffic controllers located at air traffic management agency NATS’ air traffic control centre in Swanwick in Hampshire, 70 miles to the southwest.
LCY is the world’s first airport with significant daily commercial operations to use a remote tower. Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions has provided the system following earlier trials at small regional airports including Cranfield in Bedfordshire and Örnsköldsvik and Sundsvall, Sweden.
NATS operations director Juliet Kennedy said: “Digital tower technology tears up a blueprint that’s remained largely unchanged for 100 years, allowing us to safely manage aircraft from almost anywhere, while providing our controllers with valuable new tools that would be impossible in a traditional control tower.”
Sixteen HD cameras and sensors mounted on the mast capture a live 360° view of the airfield transmitted through secure superfast fibre connections to NATS Swanwick. It is displayed on 14 HD screens in the control room there to provide a panoramic moving image and has a dedicated team of controllers using the footage in conjunction with a live audio feed from the airfield and radar information to direct movements. Callsigns, altitude and speed of all aircraft, weather readings and the ability to track moving objects can be included in the single visual display. Pan-tilt-zoom cameras can magnify images up to 30 times for close inspection, and digital data can be overlaid to provide an ‘enhanced reality’ view.
