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Air Traffic Control?

How long until air traffic control is mostly an automated system?

  • I'm not hugely knowledgeable on the topic so bear with me. But the way I see it, especially when we have computers as powerful as they are today, how long until automation controls most of air traffic control? You'd think we have the ability and technology to program systems to manage air traffic effectively and in many cases more efficiently. Of course I don't imagine humans being completely written off, they still need to deal with emergencies and whatnot, but what do you think is in store for the future of air traffic control?

  • Answer:

    It will be a long, long time. For one thing, the aviation industry is very conservative with respect to safety. Second, completely automating air traffic control is an extremely complex problem without full solutions right now. Third, there are almost as many risks to automation as there are advantages. Fourth, it costs a lot of money. Fifth, it's not clear that there would be any cost-effective advantages. The traffic problems today are due to airlines scheduling far too many flights in small airplanes instead of fewer flights in big airplanes. You can only get so many aircraft in and out of an airport per hour no matter how much automation you have, and airlines cram lots of flights into conflicting time slots. No change in air traffic control is going to fix that.

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It will never be automated. There is a need for human interaction 24/7. Computers break and malfunction all the time.

BigReg24

Computers can do lots of things but not one as of today can "reason" they only can do what the program allows, until you have one that can rason people will be in ATC and in pilot seats. Besides 'The blue screen of death" would take on a whole new meaning wouldn't it.

Tracy L

Are you ready to completely trust your life to something running on Windows software? And what will happen the first time a severe blizzard hits?

Dances With Mops 2 - Mop Bucket Boogaloo

This question raises alot of discussion within the community because of computers implications. First the systems are already built this way, the AIr Traffic can all be put on Auto, aircraft are all now interconnected, at rolls royce in the UK, they can sit and change the config of an engine using a computer, they can even turn it down if the pilot is pushing it to hard. Also aircraft do land themselves, they control the whole flight path until about 100 feet above the runway, the pilot take over here because this part of flying is the riskiest and even though it has been proven that the computers can do it a humans judgement is better than a computers. In traffic control there are procedures to follow, if a plane is in an emergency, and cant reach a airport the plane is sent to the nearest place out of the way to be ditched (crashed). But this hasnt happened because the human traffic controlers can think out side of the box, they can think, well the wind is followign this way so it will give them extra range, or you cant turn so just use the rudder to turn. A computer unfortunately can only relay the information it has programed within, so in an emergency it would be useless. So the best senario, is the computers advise and control most of the information, the human sits, looks pretty and tells the pilot what the computer is saying, and can take full control in an emergency. Hope this helps

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