Air traffic control across Europe has long been a patchwork quilt of incompatible national systems, with Eurocontrol sitting uneasily above them, handling upper atmosphere movements for several but not all of its 11 member nations. Now something is being done to create a more efficient pan-Eurpean system and the air traffic administration consortium is planning to release several requests for proposals early next year for the five-year design phase of its 15-year $1,000m European air traffic control scheme. The consortium has outlined its integration programme, and the purpose of the design phase is to produce detailed specifications for all the elements of an air traffic control system that will integrate Europe’s 42 air traffic control centres. The contracts are valued at $46.8m and will cover several categories including air traffic management systems, Mode S, ground-based communication systems, network software and forecasting analysis. The specifications will be used as the basis for a 10-year $1,200m implementation phase scheduled to begin in late 1995. According to Computer Systems News, Martin Marietta Corp and SD-Scicon Plc are well-positioned to win contracts since they have had projects in he past, and IBM has also supplied an RS/6000-based air traffic controller workstation. Other vendors to have shown interest include L M Ericsson, Thomson-CSF and Hughes Aircraft Co’s Ground Systems Unit. The various design categories cover a broad range of technologies, and air traffic management includes flight data processing systems, air traffic control workstations and associated software. Mode S covers radar technology and includes an air to ground data communication link that will be part of a broader Open Systems Interconnection-based network called the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network. The network software category will concentrate on development software to support the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network and Mode S data link subnet. Forecasting and analysis is required to include air traffic volume and cost benefit studies.
