Air Force Tests Remote Air Traffic Control Towers.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: NEWS BRIEFS

GEELONG, Australia -- An Austria-based company's remote virtual air traffic control tower product is beginning to attract customers in both the civilian and military aviation sectors.

Vienna-based Frequentis has sold its smart VISION tower system to civilian customers in Argentina, Germany and New Zealand. The U.S. Air Force acquired two fixed systems and two deployable systems in October, Mark Robinson, head of air traffic management at the company said on the sidelines of Avalon--the Australian Airshow.

There are a couple business cases for the technology, which allows air traffic controllers to monitor airports from remote locations, he said. One is the sheer expense of building, updating or refurbishing air traffic control towers. They can cost $ 10 million to upwards of $40 million to replace.

"It's quite an expensive business," he said. Frequentis' system of cameras, automatic dependent surveillance feeds--which provides aircraft identity information--and high-fidelity monitors can cost around $2 million to $3 million depending on the scale of the airport.

"We put cameras in certain locations, monitor airspace and we send that picture somewhere else. 'Somewhere else' can be downstairs in the same building, or it can be 1,000 miles away," he said.

The other business case is for airports with little traffic. Scandinavian countries, for example, have numerous remote airports in small cities that only see a few flights per day. Yet the communities want air traffic controllers. Ten such...