London ’s cramped City Airport , located in the centre of the metropolis , is undergo a monolithic upgrade , including the addition of a fancy new melody traffic control pillar . But to maximise the airport ’s modified space , that tower is in reality being built 80 miles away , and will rely on 14 high - def cameras to give remote ATC crowd a practical vista of the far - off airport .
The idea of the drome ’s air dealings control team being place over an hour away from the comings and goings of all the genuine planes sounds kind of terrifying . But asTom Scott explain , this is n’t the first time a virtual ATC towboat has been created : countless smaller aerodrome already utilize them . And the virtual screen provide some unique advantage , like augmented overlays showing radar ticket and call signs tagged to each aeroplane as they move across the screen .
But it is the first time a practical system like this is being used at a facility as busy as London ’s City Airport , which is why myriad safety systems are being employed . The live flow from the cameras are being sent through secret , untroubled pipes , and have less than a second postponement by the time they reach the virtual tower in a nearby town called Swanwick .

When one of the jumbo sieve being monitored by aviation dealings control bunch flush it , the bird’s-eye view of the airport is automatically reshuffle across the remaining screens until a raw show can be set up in about ten mo . And if one of the 14 camera at the drome break , extra goat god and zoom cameras will immediately fill in the interruption until repairs can be made . If the intact system of rules go wrong , the ATC bunch can fall back to microwave radar and vocalization communication , which is what they already use when fog limit visibility .
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aura traffic controlPlanesTom Scott

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