100 Years ATC History Book

zby Philippe Domogala, Chairman 100 Years ATC Task FOrce

We formed a small task force to come up with ideas. One of the first suggestions was to try and write a book on the history of ATC. As Philip Marien and I had collaborated for decades on The Controller magazine and had written a book on the history of the Eurocontrol Maastricht Centre, we were a logical choice to take on this challenging project. We began researching and collecting information, often helped by colleagues who volunteered information, photos and stories.

It soon became apparent that it could not be an academic-style history book, mostly because we simply did not have the ‘scientific’ background, but also because ATC did not develop linearly. Air traffic control was not invented: necessity drove most developments that shaped it to what it is today, one hundred years later. Unfortunately, many of these developments and improvements followed from an accident or a crisis. Standards, rules and procedures were rarely pro actively developed. With only a few exceptions, they were driven by hindsight and by a need to make things safer. While this more or less confirms the idea that we are a reactive industry, it does not mean controllers themselves are averse to change, as is an often-heard criticism. In many cases, the controllers themselves came up with the necessary changes before these were eventually turned into standards or procedures. Rather than a dry, chronological account of ATC, we decided to try and write short stories and anecdotes that help illustrate the origins and development of ATC throughout the years and across the world. To help structure things, we looked at five major periods.

While passenger flights tentatively began in, as early as, 1910, there was no real need for air traffic control. The sky was a big place, and every pilot could fly as he wanted to. That changed dramatically following World War I: Military aircraft were re-purposed and commercial aviation boomed across Europe. A lot of infrastructure, including railroads, had been destroyed and travel by air proved a significant time-saver, especially across stretches of water like the English Channel. Around Europe, having an airfield became a matter of prestige, many towns and cities and hundreds of fields were made into landing strips. Other countries and territories, like Canada, Australia and the Soviet Union were so expansive that ground-based transportation systems were expensive and cumbersome: aviation offered a viable alternative. Though early attempts to introduce basic rules of the air failed, a number of countries began organising traffic at and around their increasingly busy airports.

The first mid-air collision between commercial aircraft in April 1922 on the London to Paris route convincingly demonstrated the need for tighter rules and regulations, and for better monitoring the existing air routes. The first tower-like structures began appearing at airports around Europe.

Besides controlling what happened at the airfield, staff in these towers also followed flight progress and provided navigation assistance using direction finding. Airfields began coordinating flights between each other, and required pilots to obey take-off and landing authorisations.

As aircraft rapidly evolved and could fly further, en-route stations were installed to provide navigation assistance, provide weather and traffic updates. These would eventually evolve into en-route centres.

During the second World War, the UK’s Royal Air Force built 420 airfields worldwide. Other air forces had constructed hundreds more. By the end of the war, many of these airfields had long concrete runways, taxiways, aprons, and control towers. They had approach and runway lighting, and approach aids. Whilst some were decommissioned or remained in military service, many were transferred to civil ownership and operation.

The war also accelerated the development of many technologies. VHF radio was widely available for air ground communications and a new generation of area navigation aids were introduced, including LORAN and VHF omni-directional radio range beacons (VOR). Final approach aids were developed to help pilots break cloud on final approach. And of course, there was radar.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, US and UK military staff introduced their procedures and control methods to many airfields around Europe and the rest of the world. It was not long before they began training local staff, who gradually took over as military operations wound down. Similarly, to the situation at the end of the first World War, there was a massive surplus of aircraft and aircrew.

Recognising that aviation was no longer a regional industry, a new international organisation, ICAO, began harmonising standards and procedures worldwide.

The introduction of faster turboprop and jet aircraft in the 1950s brought new challenges. These aircraft were not only faster, but flew higher, above 20,000ft which up to that time had been nearly exclusively used by military jets. Air traffic control expanded above 20,000 ft. En-route ATC began replacing the "see and avoid" principle that was the main form of separation.

The computers were introduced for both flight plan and radar data processing. Increasingly, radar was used to separate en-route traffic, especially in busy airspace and around airports.

In a number of countries, controllers became increasingly unhappy about their working conditions. This led to a number of social conflicts and a dramatic collision over France, were the government had replaced the striking civil controllers with miliary personnel. Three years later, a collision overhead Zagreb again brought the profession in the spotlight. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) was tasked to study the job of air traffic controllers.

As air travel became ever more mainstream, an increasing number of countries encountered capacity constraints. The USA had taken the lead in deregulating the industry, leading to a surge in airline start-ups including the so-called low-cost carriers. It put further strain on the already stretched air traffic control system and brought controller shortages, poor working conditions, safety concerns and capacity problems to light.

Publication of an ILO report in 1979, on the particularities of the job of a controller, did not go unnoticed, but failed to immediately improve the situation for most controllers. Social unrest in many countries continued as a result, until it came to an abrupt and dramatic climax in the USA, when President Reagan fired over 11,000 controllers. While it was a brutal wakeup call for industrial relations, working conditions gradually improved for many controllers in the years following the PATCO debacle. Capacity and delays became a recurring issue, leading to the implementation of flow control in the USA, Europe and a number of other places. While the responsibility to provide of Air Traffic Control remains with the States, a number of them chose to privatise the service provision. This came with an increased focus on efficiency, financial targets and lowering costs. Many politicians and airline operators were proponents of a full liberalisation of air traffic services, with contracts awarded to the lowest bidder.

Over the past two decades, periods of rapidly increasing demand alternated periods of dramatic drops in traffic: the attacks of 9/11, the financial crisis in 2008, an Icelandic volcano and of course COVID demonstrated that the aviation industry operates on extremely tight margins. Knee-jerk reactions like stopping recruitment and training made that periods of high demand created immediate capacity crunches. Under pressure from the airline operators, policy makers have turned to try and invest in technology rather than changes to how ATC is financed.

The plans for the publication of the book had to be realigned several times, mainly due to the pandemic but also because the task was substantially more challenging than foreseen. Similarly to most, if not all, major projects in air traffic control, the book has suffered some unfortunate delays. Publication is currently foreseen somewhere in 2023, if there are no more delays of course.

The book aims to celebrate the achievements of controllers, assistants, support staff, engineers, scientists, all of those in manufacturing industries that have created the tools we have used as well as other organisations and service providers. It is a shared history, every much an achievement of all of us.

For details on availability, cost and how to get your copy, keep an eye on IFATCA’s social media and/or internet pages. y