London City Airport Virtual ATC: In two years, air traffic controllers will monitor aircraft movements at London City Airport (EGLC/LCY) from 80 miles (129 kilometres) away at the Swanwick NATS control centre in Hampshire.
This bustling London airport is planning for the UK’s first remote digital air traffic control (ATC) tower, which will be 50 meters (164 feet) tall and equipped with cutting-edge technology. Construction will begin next year and operations will commence the following year. That means controllers will rely on live footage via fibre cables from 14 high-definition cameras and two pan-tilt-zoom cameras for a 360-degree view of the airport’s 1,500-meter (4,921-foot) runway and its surroundings.
The system will be developed by Swedish company Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions. The camera equipment will be able to zoom up to 30 times larger than normal view and instruments will gather critical operational and sensor data for instant analysis, with ready access to weather and radar data simultaneously. The system will also be equipped with an audio feed of the ambient noise from the airfield.
The technology has already been tested in Australia, Norway, and Ireland and is currently being used in several airports in Sweden.
Furthermore, protocols will be firmly in place to safeguard the systems against cyber-attacks. This point is ultra-critical in the wake of the “WannaCry” malware attack earlier this year that crippled medical facilities across the UK. Airport authorities insist that the super-fast fibre network connecting LCY and the NATS control centre will ensure operational continuity.
This remote, virtual tower is intended to modernize the airport, advance operational safety, and greatly improve air traffic management for the next 30-plus years. Airport officials refer to it as future-proofing the facility. And since operations at LCY are expected to continue to increase – with a record-setting 4.5 million passengers served in 2016 – this is a vital, multi-million-pound investment in its continued growth and part of a larger £344 million ($448 million) expansion project, which will also extend the terminal building and provide a new taxiway.
The existing, 30-year-old tower will be decommissioned when the new tower comes online, upon the conclusion of a successful, one-year testing period of all new equipment.
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Mitch Launius
Instructor Pilot for 30 West IP
Mitch is the CEO of 30 West IP where he is also an instructor providing pilot training on international procedures. With an illustrious career of over 34 years in the cockpit, Mitch has acquired over 13,000 hours of flight time flying worldwide, with over 9,000 hours of this in Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. He is an experienced safety officer and was also an IS-BAO project manager for a fortune 500 flight department. He has presented on Safety and Operations topics at the NBAA International Operators Conference and the Canadian Business Aviation Association Convention and is currently on the NBAA International Operators Committee and serves as the North Atlantic Regional Lead. Mitch is also a member of an FAA working group on General Aviation International Authorizations and Tabletop Exercises (GIATE). He was recently selected to represent IBAC as a member of the ICAO Personal Training and Licensing Panel (PTLP) and was also recently named as a 2020 recipient of the NBAA Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award for his contribution to the business aviation community.
Henry ‘Duke’ LeDuc
Director Of Operations, Americas, UAS International Trip Support
Duke has been a dearly respected member of UAS Americas team and the UAS global family for more than five years. A safety-oriented, FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, he oversees all of the operations of the elite UAS Operations Team. With twenty-five years of experience in aviation overall with more than fifteen years of experience in international flight planning and VVIP trip coordination, he is responsible for the development of the dispatch training program and involved in the strategic development of UAS Americas. With a myriad of rich aviation experience behind him, he has extensive experience in worldwide operations with both corporate and charter environments, including seven years as Operations/Dispatch Manager in an industry-leading, Fortune 500, IS-BAO Stage III Certified corporate flight department. Duke is frequently asked shares his knowledge at major industry events and is currently serving on the NBAA’s International Operators Conference (IOC) Planning Committee.
Dudley King
President and Founder, FlightBridge
Dudley is the Founder and President of FlightBridge, which he established in 2011 and has been focused on technology solutions for the private aviation industry since 2006. Since he graduated from Dartmouth in 1988, he has worked with an array of companies listed anywhere from VentureWire to the Fortune 100. A rare blend of executive, entrepreneur, and consultant, Dudley’s executive roles have included acting CIO positions for several companies and tech advisory services to CEOs trying to rebuild their technology organizations or looking for an external, professional point of view. Highly skilled at deeply understanding his customer’s business challenges and drawing from a long and varied experience in information technology services, Dudley excels at designing technology solutions to solve their problems.
Dr. Paulo Alves
Global Medical Director, Aviation Health, Medaire
Paulo has extensive experience in medical advisory in the aviation industry. As a cardiologist, he provides technical guidance and analysis for MedAire’s MedLink medical advisory service and is MedAire’s liaison with civil aviation regulators and industry associations. Paulo worked with Varig Brazilian Airlines for 23 years, 10 of which were spent as General Medical Manager. A member of the MedAire Medical Advisory Board, Paulo is also President of the Ibero-American Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the International Academy of Aerospace Medicine, a member of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Safety Committee, a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), and a Fellow of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. Throughout his illustrious career, Paulo has held industry leadership roles including Chairperson of the AsMA’s Air Transport Medicine Committee, President of the Airlines Medical Directors Association, President of the Brazilian Society of Aerospace Medicine and was a member of the IATA Medical Advisory Group from 2002 to 2006.
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