History of air traffic control in the United Kingdom

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The history of air traffic control in the United Kingdom began in the late 1950s, and early 1960s, when an integrated and coordinated system began, once radar had become sufficiently advanced to allow this.

London Airport[edit]

On 15 July 1919, the world's first commercial flight occurred, when Henry Shaw (1892-1977) piloted a de Havilland DH.9 for Aircraft Transport and Travel from Hendon to Le Bourget airfield in Paris.[1] The pilot did not have a passport.

Jimmy Jeffs was the world's first air traffic controller at London Airport on 22 February 1922. The Mayday callsign originated at London Airport in 1921.

The 1922 Picardie mid-air collision started the need for defined air routes.

From 1928, radio signals from Croydon, Pulham St Mary in Norfolk and Lymm in Kent triangulated the position of aircraft; a similar system was set up by Germany in 1940, known as the Battle of the Beams.

Development of radar[edit]

See also: Radar in World War II
Memorial to the 1935 Daventry Experiment, funded by Qinetiq (of the Malvern Hills Science Park), in October 2001[2]

On the evening of 25 February 1935 at Stowe Nine Churches (Upper Stowe) in Northamptonshire, the so-called Daventry experiment took place with Robert Watson-Watt to prove that radar detection of aircraft was possible. Other subsequent technology needed for the wide deployment of radar was coordinated by Sir Edward Fennessy, of 60 Group and Sir Raymund Hart in planning Filter Rooms,[3] at RAF Bawdsey in Suffolk.

The first four radar stations were at Dover in July 1937, Canewdon in August 1937, followed by Great Bromley, and Dunkirk, Kent, with 358-feet masts, fabricated by J. L. Eve Construction.[4]

Ground-controlled interception (GCI) was first developed in the UK during the early part of WWII, at RAF Sopley in Hampshire, close to Bournemouth. Development of the system began in October 1940, and the first ground-controlled interception took place on 1 January 1941 with the Bristol Beaufighter at RAF Middle Wallop, and the call sign Starlight.[5]

AMES Type 7

The interception was enabled by 604 Squadron. The Beaufighter R2098 NG-H, equipped with the AI Mark IV radar had made the first interception with AI radar at 00.35 on 20 November 1940, thanks to radar operator Sgt John Phillipson, destroying a Junkers Ju 88A, B3-YL, of III./KG 54 from Évreux-Fauville Air Base; Birmingham had been heavily bombed that night by 439 German aircraft, guided by KG 100; the Ju 88 pilot Unteroffizier Franz Sondermeier baled out.[6]

The Beaufighter had four Hispano-Suiza HS.404 20mm cannon in the nose of the aircraft (the Messerschmitt Bf 109 had one), so if any enemy aircraft could be caught at close range, by its airborne radar, few German aircraft would survive. Although the rate of Luftwaffe combat losses, detected by airborne radar, markedly increased throughout the first half of 1941, only three German bombers destroyed over Britain in February 1941[7], around 50 in April and 102 in May. The Luftwaffe campaign would abruptly stop in the second week of May 1941.

From late 1941, GCI would be carried out by the AMES Type 7 radar, which provided a 360 degrees view; such radar was developed at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE).

The other GCI units were at Orby in east Lincolnshire, Waldringfield in east Suffolk, Willesborough in Kent next to the present M20, Durrington, West Sussex and Avebury, by end of January 1941, being fitted from June 1941 with the AMES Type 7.

As part of the Telecommunications Flying Unit, on 16 January 1945 at RAF Defford in Worcestershire, Boeing 247 DZ203 made the first automatic approach and landing.

After the war BEA planned to navigate its aircraft with the GEE system,[8] across Scotland and Northern Ireland.[9]

In February 1946 there was an international conference at the headquarters of RAF Transport Command, that discussed new radar, orbit meters for orbits, and the Rebecca/Eureka transponding radar.[10]

Integration[edit]

From 14 April 1950 the ATC centre at Raigmore moved to Prestwick; Raigmore had looked after the Northern Scottish FIR, which merged with the Central Scottish FIR.[11]

On Wednesday 18 June 1958, a £5m plan for coordinating air traffic control was announced. Four new radar centres would be built; previous to this, ATC personnel received aircraft positional information over the radio from pilots, not from any radar. The UK Air Traffic Service began in September 1959; it controlled air movements above 25,000 ft.

The USA had created its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also in 1958.

Routes[edit]

The first longer-range 750kW radar opened at London Airport on 22 February 1950, with the first airway expected to start from early June 1950; it could detect four-engined aircraft at 130 miles, at 20,000 ft, and at 90 miles, at 10,000 ft. A trial system had begun in May 1949.[12] It was known as London Radar, and was the first of its type in the world.[13] Until better electronics had been installed, ground-control approaches at airports, in bad weather, were the scenes of a series of terrible accidents in the 1950s.

Upper airspace routes, known as airways, were created in the early 1950s.[14][15]

In the first phase of airways

  • Green One opened on 1 August 1950, from the Irish Sea - Strumble Head - Bristol - London.;[16] it was ten miles wide, 5,000 to 11,000 ft

In the second phase of airways

  • Green One, was extended eastwards via North Foreland to a point 21 miles off the east coast, for London to Brussels traffic
  • Amber One, Daventry - Dunsfold - Dieppe - Paris, later extended to Manchester
  • Amber Two Paris - Abbeville - Brookmans Park - Daventry
  • Red One, Dunsfold - North Foreland - Amsterdam
  • Blue One, Bletchley - Watford - Crowborough
  • Red Two, Woodley - Epsom - Kent

In the third phase of airways

  • Amber One was extended northwards via Manchester and Liverpool to Prestwick and Glasgow
  • Green Two, Dublin - Liverpool - north west Europe
  • Red Three, Liverpool - Isle Man - Belfast
  • Blue Two, Belfast - Prestwick - Glasgow[17]

Amber One had beacons at New Galloway and Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire; another beacon further south was Dean Cross, between Plumbland and Gilcrux in north-west Cumbria.[18]

Coordinating organisation[edit]

On Monday 10 December 1962, Julian Amery, the Minister for Aviation, announced the new National Air Traffic Control Services, with a central controller. Military air traffic control was controlled by the Military Air Traffic Organisation.

The precision approach radar SLA-3C was ordered from STC in 1962 for civilian airports; the SLA-3B had previously been ordered for military purposes.[19]

In 1963 the RAF ordered the Plessey AR-1 for its terminal approach radar, a 75-mile range.[20]

The London Terminal Control Centre at RAF West Drayton opened in November 1966, but only received radar coverage in 1971; previous to that, Southern Radar had been headquartered at RAF Sopley in Hampshire from 1959. NATCS, the coordinating organisation, became NATS in April 1972, when it became part of the CAA. Computer flight plans were implemented in 1975.

The Mediator system started on 1 February 1971 at West Drayton, with the full computer system beginning in the mid-1970s, planned for March 1972. Manchester Airport became the site of the northern radar centre in 1975.[21]

From 12am Friday 26 April 1974, the Lichfield and Hawarden radar sectors were moved from Preston to London; so that London and Prestwick would become the two main radar hubs in the UK.[22]

From the 1980s, ILS was replaced at main airports by the microwave landing system (MLS) as it was better for bad weather.

At London in 1990, a £22m IBM 4381 computer (IBM 370 architecture) replaced an ageing IBM 9020, which was three IBM 360/65 computers. The Princess Royal opened the new computer on 18 June 1990. London looked after the sectors of Daventry, Pole Hill - Northern England, Bristol - Strumble Head, Irish Sea, Cardiff, Dover - Lydd, Clacton, North Sea and Hurn - Seaford - Worthing.[23]

The London Area Control Centre at West Drayton moved to Swanwick, Hampshire at 2.30am on Sunday 27 Jan 2002, when 29-year-old controller Sarah Harris guided an Airtours International Flight AIH 550 from Gran Canaria Airport at Las Palmas safely into Birmingham Airport. Swanwick had been hoped to open in 1996 and to cost £350m. Swanwick oversaw flights above 20,000 feet, excluding those around Manchester under 21,000 feet and around South East England under 24,500 feet.[24]

Swanwick was intended to replace two sites at West Drayton and Manchester (at Manchester Airport), but the West Drayton centre remained open to oversee London and South East England, and was planned to close in 2007; it closed on 23 November 2007 when around 500 staff moved to Swanwick. NATS also have a technical centre in Whiteley. The RAF 78 Sqn moved to Swanwick from January 2008.[25] Swanwick receives radar information from nine radar sites.

Controllers[edit]

ATC personnel were represented by the Institution of Professional Civil Servants, which became Institution of Professionals, Managers and Specialists in 1989.

Training[edit]

In the early 1960s, both military and civil radar operators were trained at a joint school at RAF Sopley. Sopley had the joint radar school from October 1960. Sopley remained jointly-run until December 1970, when only military personnel were trained. Sopley closed as radar school around August 1972.[26]

Around sixty countries would send ATC trainees to the College of Air Traffic Control (CATC) in Dorset, including Eastern Europe. The Central Air Traffic Control School RAF trained military ATC personnel from 1963; the first women ATC trainees began later in 1963.

Aircraft movements[edit]

There were 372,000 aircraft movements in the UK in 1960, 480,000 in 1962, and 610,000 by 1969.[27]

In 2017, NATS handled around 2.5 million flights.

The UK has the third-largest aviation network after the US and China. Up to 80% of North Atlantic air traffic passes through UK airspace. The Shanwick OCA (Shanwick Oceanic Control) was formed in 1966, and controlled from Prestwick, with two communication towers in southern Ireland and Gloucestershire.

The Concorde route from Heathrow Airport to Bahrain was the world's first supersonic air transport route.

Radar manufacturers[edit]

By July 1972, Software Sciences of Hampshire had built the ATC system for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, known as PHAROS - Plan Handling and Radar Operating System. it was built with Nederlandsche Standard Electric and Stansaab Elektronik of Sweden; it worked on two Stansaab Censor 932 computers.[28]

En-route communications[edit]

Early VHF communications with aircraft began around 1950. From Monday 8 May 1950 ATC staff at RAF Prestwick could speak to pilots on 122.1 MHz.

Secondary radar and transponders[edit]

From the early 1960s, A.C. Cossor at Harlow claimed to be the only company in Europe making secondary radar.[29]

Air France and BOAC ordered the Cossor SSR.1251 transponder system for their Boeing 707 aircraft.[30]

By 1 July 1962 all aircraft flying over 25,000 ft in the UK were to have had a transponder fitted.[31] This date was moved to 1 July 1965, then to 1 July 1966, and also applied to Eurocontrol countries. Not enough aircraft had had transponders fitted, and not enough ground radar units had had enough secondary radar added.[32]

In April 1965 Russia (through Aviaexport) bought fifty SSR.1600 ATC Airborne Transponders for its Aeroflot fleet, and for manufacturers such as Tupolev, for £80,000. The Concorde team turned down this transponder.[33]

The SSR.2100 transponder was fitted to aircraft such as Concorde, the BAC 1-11, Trident, and the Viscount.

In a £2.75m contract, Plessey supplied the secondary radar system for the new West Drayton site, to operate from mid-1969, on Plessey Digitrace screens.[34]

In 1979 Cossor developed its Adsel transponder system. From 1983, this system was internationally called Mode S (S=selective) to avoid FRUIT (False Returns Unsynchronised with Interrogator Transmissions). It was being trialled in British Midland aircraft.[35]

Cossor largely developed the monopulse system, entering service from the early 1980s.[36] Cossor was the leading company for transponders, right into the 1990s.

The selective Mode S system had been also developed in Worcestershire since the late 1960s.[37] The S band works with 10-cm radar.

Radar stations[edit]

Marconi Radar Systems, who built much of the radar, had sites at Bill Quay in Gateshead (mechanical infrastructure), in the north of Leicester (at the junction of Blackbird Road and Anstey Lane), and two large sites in Chelmsford, although much of these radars were for air defence.

The radome canopies were made by English Electric Reinforced Plastic Division at Warton, which became GEC Reinforced Plastics, moving to GEC Engineering at Clayton-le-Moors, north of Accrington, in 1992, later becoming Techbuild Composites in 1994; off the A6185 at junction 7 of the M65.

27 Doppler VOR (VHF omnidirectional range) beacons, costing £3.5m, were built in 1982 by Racial Avionics (former Decca Radar) of New Malden. The first Cossor 20 monopulse SSR 950 were installed in June 1983, replacing Cossor 5G, which were installed in mid 1960s. The first RAF monopulse system was at Scampton in January 1987. A contract for 17 secondary radar sets was given to Marconi Radar Systems in 1985.[38]

In June 2016 Raytheon received a contract to supply the Mode S monopulse secondary radar to all of NATS 23 radar sites. A Radar Reference Facility was built by Raytheon in Hampshire, to train staff.

The sites are technically referred to as radar heads.

Civilian[edit]

See also: List of airports in the United Kingdom and the British Crown Dependencies
Allans Hill in Aberdeenshire in January 2007
Cromer radar station in October 2018; it has a Raytheon ASR 10SS
Pease Pottage Air Traffic Radar, March 2023
  • Allans Hill, Aberdeenshire; situated between New Aberdour and Strichen, with a 9.5-metre tower, had a Plessey Watchman, mainly for helicopters, with a range of 90 miles[39]; planning permission was granted in April 1991,[40] to be built by 1994[41]
  • Blackpool, has a Raytheon ASR 10SS; it was fitted with 500 kW 50 cm Marconi Type 264A, when operating the Mediator system
  • Claxby, also known as Lincoln, in north-east Lincolnshire, has a 250-mile range, on land owned by BT, supplies Manchester
  • In August 1970, a new £150,000 Plessey AR-5 23cm radar for Titterstone Clee Hill, in Shropshire, was to be built by 1971;[42] Clee Hill had RAF radar during World War II, but this site had closed in 1956; the radome was fitted in September 1968, the first radome in the UK[43]; radar information was sent back to London from microwave links at Romsley, Worcestershire, Whichford Hill in the south of Warwickshire, and Christmas Common in the Chilterns, south of the M40; the Plessey DASR-1 en-route system had been there since 1964[44]; the secondary radar had direct connections to Heathrow and Manchester airports, and later to Birmingham in 1979, and East Midlands in 1980[45]
  • Cromer Radar was set up in the late 1980s, with a link to a new air traffic control centre at Stansted; it had Plessey Watchman as its primary radar for the North Sea, often for helicopters travelling to North Sea oil platforms. The RAF and RN also had Cromer as their primary radar; it worked via a travelling-wave tube.[46]
  • Debden, Uttlesford, in Essex, the 23 cm radar has a 160-mile range; planning permission was given in June 1980[47], being built around 1981; it provided secondary radar for Stansted until 1991
  • Heathrow, the 23 cm radar opened in November 1985 with a 250-mile range, and a 37-metre-high concrete tower, that was built by Fairclough Civil Engineering of Adlington in Lancashire; this has been replaced by a site at Bovingdon, of Dacorum in Hertfordshire around 2012
  • Lowther Hill, at 2,377 ft high near Wanlockhead, on the boundary of Lanarkshire and Dumfriesshire, it was the centre of the Scottish GEE network, which began on 19 August 1948, with slave stations at Craigowl Hill, 1493 feet high, at Tealing, north of Dundee,[48][49] and Ru Stafnish on Kintyre, 709 feet high, in Argyll and Bute, on the west coast of Scotland;[50][51] from May 1950 it had a radio en-route transmitter for contact with pilots in Scotland,[52] in the VHF range from 110 to 130 MHz[53]; chosen in December 1964[54] totally rebuilt, with Perwinnes Hill, in 1996,with a 23cm SPR51 Routeman fitted
  • Mount Gabriel, southern Ireland, feeds into LACC
  • Pease Pottage, in the north-east of West Sussex, a 23 cm radar opened in December 1986, on land owned by the Met Office, with a 160-mile range; 37-metres high, with a 15-metre wide dish[55]
  • Perwinnes Hill, near Aberdeen, for Aberdeen Airport at Dyce, and the helicopters for the North Sea; it had a £325,000 Marconi 264 radar installed on 7 October 1976[56][57], which had been obtained from RAF Sopley[58]; it was improved in the mid-1980s to take radar coverage to 150 miles, with secondary radar[59], and totally rebuilt in the mid-1990s, with a 19-metre tower; the previous 264 radar had been maintained from parts taken from the former Ash and Ventnor radar stations
  • Tiree, at Ben Hynish on the Inner Hebrides, it has a 210-nautical mile range; the £8m radar replaced a military radar in 3 cm radar Northern Ireland, and opened in July 1986; a new television transmitter was required to be built as well; the structural engineer was Sir Frederick Snow;[60][61][62] 30-metres high[63], built by Mowlem, of Kilsyth, in a £2.47m contract,[64] completed in March 1985[65]

Military[edit]

By 1964, the RAF had four main military radar units.

Former[edit]

European central air traffic control[edit]

On Thursday 9 June 1960, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, West Germany and Holland decided to coordinate air traffic control as jet aircraft were much quicker, to prevent collisions.[68]

Eurocontrol was planned to have jurisdiction over 25,000 ft in the UK, from around 1965.[69]

Eurocontrol in November 2005

On Friday 20 December 1968, an agreement was signed to build Europe's first international control centre at Maastricht, to open in 1972, called the Maastricht Automatic Data Processing system or MADAP, which is now called the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre; for the site, Plessey would build two computers, the controllers' consoles and a radar distribution unit. In 1981, the first computer data link between LATCC at West Drayton and Eurocontrol was established, followed by Brest Airport and Reims in 1986 and Paris in 1987; advanced boundary information (ABI) began in late 1990.[70]

Eurocontrol, established on 1 March 1964, had been initially set up for eventually becoming a Europe-wide full air traffic control system, but individual countries could not together form agreements for this to fully happen; this meant that by the late 1980s Eurocontrol oversaw only flights above 25,000 feet over the Netherlands, Belgium and part of West Germany.[71]

Much of European air traffic control is run on the CIMACT software package. The Single European Sky was created in the late 1990s, being official from 2001.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Forging Empires and Oceans: Pioneers, Aviators and Adventurers - Forging the International Air Routes (1919-39), page 100, Robert Bluffield, 2014
  2. ^ Daventry Weekly Express Thursday 4 October 2001, page 12
  3. ^ Times Tuesday July 19 1960, page 15
  4. ^ Brentwood Gazette Friday 14 September 1990, page 68
  5. ^ Ground-controlled interception in 1941 at RAF Sopley
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ Times Wednesday November 6 1946, page 2
  8. ^ Times Friday August 23 1946, page 8
  9. ^ Times Friday October 10 1947, page 2
  10. ^ Times Tuesday February 26 1946, page 2
  11. ^ Falkirk Herald Wednesday 19 April 1950, page 4
  12. ^ Times Thursday February 9 1950, page 4
  13. ^ Times Monday July 31 1950, page 5
  14. ^ On the Beam 1951 COI film
  15. ^ Radar for Aircraft Control 1973 film
  16. ^ Times Thursday February 15, 1951, page 3
  17. ^ Coventry Evening Telegraph Tuesday 18 July 1950, page 17
  18. ^ The Scotsman Tuesday 3 October 1950, page 4
  19. ^ Times Friday August 10 1962, page 5
  20. ^ Times Friday October 25 1963, page 15
  21. ^ Manchester Evening News Wednesday 15 June 1988, page 42
  22. ^ Wolverhampton Express and Star Friday 26 April 1974, page 45
  23. ^ Times Monday 18 June 1990, page 30
  24. ^ Flight International 22 January 2002
  25. ^ RAF 78 Squadron
  26. ^ New Milton Advertiser Saturday 22 July 1972, page 2
  27. ^ Birmingham Daily Post, 26 November 1969, page 1
  28. ^ Times Tuesday July 4, 1972, page 22
  29. ^ Edinburgh Evening News Friday 6 January 1961, page 14
  30. ^ The Scotsman Wednesday 19 April 1961, page 5
  31. ^ Nottingham Evening News Wednesday 24 January 1962, page 10
  32. ^ Times Thursday July 1, 1965, page 7
  33. ^ Liverpool Daily Post Monday 26 April 1965, page 2
  34. ^ Times Thursday October 12, 1967, page 19
  35. ^ The Scotsman Tuesday 10 April 1979, page 7
  36. ^ Times Friday, September 9, 1983
  37. ^ Times Friday September 26, 1980, page 27
  38. ^ Aberdeen Journal Tuesday 17 December 1985, page 10
  39. ^ Aberdeen Evening Express Thursday 16 July 1992, page 12
  40. ^ Aberdeen Press and Journal Wednesday 24 April 1991, page 2
  41. ^ Aberdeen Press and Journal Saturday 12 December 1992, page 14
  42. ^ Surrey Advertiser Friday 28 August 1970, page 7
  43. ^ Birmingham Mail Friday 6 September 1968, page 6
  44. ^ Birmingham Mail Thursday 20 August 1970, page 4
  45. ^ Long Eaton Advertiser Thursday 10 July 1980, page 8
  46. ^ Times Wednesday 27 August 1986, page 19
  47. ^ Saffron Walden Weekly News Thursday 26 June 1980, page 9
  48. ^ The Scotsman Thursday 17 March 1949, page 3
  49. ^ Midlothian Advertiser Friday 1 April 1949, page 4
  50. ^ Dundee Evening Telegraph Tuesday 10 August 1948, page 5
  51. ^ Dundee Courier Thursday 17 March 1949, page 2
  52. ^ The Scotsman Monday 8 May 1950, page 3
  53. ^ Falkirk Herald Wednesday 23 March 1949, page 4
  54. ^ Times Monday December 21 1964, page 5
  55. ^ West Sussex County Times Friday 7 January 1983, page 4
  56. ^ Aberdeen Press and Journal Friday 21 September 1990, page 3
  57. ^ Aberdeen Press and Journal Friday 1 October 1976, page 14
  58. ^ Aberdeen Press and Journal Wednesday 20 October 1976, page 11
  59. ^ Aberdeen Evening Express Saturday 10 May 1986, page 14
  60. ^ Times Friday October 7, 1988, page 35
  61. ^ The Scotsman Thursday 10 May 1984, page 2
  62. ^ The Scotsman Thursday 30 January 1986, page 6
  63. ^ The Scotsman Monday 26 September 1983, page 10
  64. ^ The Scotsman Thursday 17 May 1984, page 12
  65. ^ The Scotsman Wednesday 13 March 1985, page 4
  66. ^ Belfast Telegraph Tuesday 21 March 1961 page 21
  67. ^ The Scotsman Wednesday 22 March 1961, page 7
  68. ^ Birmingham Daily Post Friday 10 June 1960, page 26
  69. ^ Times Saturday, April 22, 1961, page 9
  70. ^ Times Monday 7 August 1989, page 13
  71. ^ Times Wednesday 24 February 1988, page 12
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