The Blue Sky Challenge: A Personal View

The boldest challenge of the NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on “Automation and Systems Issues in Air Traffic Control Systems” was to look at so-called “blue sky” solutions to future ATC systems, unprejudiced by precedent, convention, or existing concepts of ATC system evolution. Given that most ATC services are already committed to programs up to about 2005, the ATC prophet’s task is to go forward to 2040, fifty years from now. From the view point of 50 years ahead, and with a system in mind, the visionary can look back over one shoulder and identify what developments will be needed to take ATC from 2005 to 2040, if indeed there is ATC in 2040. I do not pretend to be enough of a systems expert, or an engineer in either hardware or software, to make a detailed projection; but allow me as a simple lay controller to throw my hat into the ring, as part of the debate.