London City Airport Digital Tower: aviation technology

London’s  City Airport, one of the busiest single-runway airports in Europe, will have the full digital display  ATC facility open in January 2020.

• This was announced already some time ago but this week’s news amazed the world:  ATC personnel won’t actually be located on the airport any longer.
• They’ll be 80 miles away in the building in Shanwick that already houses other ATC functions. A system of 14 high definition cameras at the airport will feed the remote ATC operation, as well as remote radios and radar feeds.
• London City controllers will direct traffic by looking at any of the 14 HD screens in the control room in Shanwick.

The article: 

• safe separation between arriving and departing aircraft
• delay

Additional data safety measures will ensure there’s no loss of safe separation between arriving and departing aircraft. For instance, because controllers depend on the video feeds from the airport’s cameras, the data are being sent through dedicated secure connections that create less than a one-second delay to the HD displays in the control room.

Watch HERE the presentation

• on the remaining 13 screens 
• replacing a dead screen
• fill the gap
• impenetrable fog

If any of the HD displays in the control room should fail, the system will work around the bad screen and offer controllers the best view possible on the remaining 13. Replacing a dead screen takes just 10 minutes. Should a camera fail, backups will jump into action tofill the gap. And of course, if the entire digital display system should fail, controllers still have radios and radar to fall back on, much like they do now when London’s nearly impenetrable fog covers the airport.

• 0:16′ ensure that all aircraft can take off, land and move around the airfield safely
• 0:30′ digital air traffic control system
• 0:37′ enhance operational safety and efficiency
• 0:56′ cutting-edge proven technology

Watch HERE the fantastic film presenting LCA digital tower project: LINK

Inspired by: flyingmag.com/ ‚London City Airport Control Tower Has Backups’

AVIATION TECHNOLOGY / AVIATION FUTURE