The Future of Air Traffic Control

The purpose of this contribution is to draw attention to some of the major areas in A.T.C. where there are difficulties and to outline the steps that are being taken to surmount them.Before looking quickly at some of the technical problems I think it might be worth taking a brief look at two important aspects which surmount the whole scene: namely the Civil/Military situation and the birth of Eurocontrol.The relationship between service and civil authorities on A.T.C. matters springs directly from the differing requirements of the two sides for air space. The increasing use of jets by civil operators has made this problem more acute because now the Service aircraft not only have to be shepherded up through the commercial traffic, but also protected from them in the upper levels. The requirements of research aircraft are also stringent and yet again, different.