Collision Avoidance and the Future of Air Traffic Control

Abstract

This paper is a report on some early findings of a long-term study which has the ambitious objective of suggesting better alternative solutions to the general problem of controlling a collection of aircraft. The study aims to answer questions about the optimum division of responsibility between the aircrew and ground A.T.C., about the way in which the A.T.C. tasks are shared between a number of controllers and A.T.C. computers, and about the fundamental principles on which traffic flow is organized.