Although the room has no windows, there’s still a view.
An array of more than a dozen video panels, stretching nearly from floor to ceiling and arranged in a semicircle in an upstairs room at Leesburg (Virginia, U.S.) Executive Airport (JYO), displays a real-time, high-definition, 360-degree panorama of the airport, the traffic pattern and the surrounding airspace. The scene, generated by cameras with infrared and visual sensors, is laid out with data overlays to command the attention of two airport air traffic controllers, who have seats at stations in the center of the room.
The set-up is the first of its kind in the United States — the product of a partnership involving Saab Sensis, the manufacturer; the Town of Leesburg, which owns and operates the airport; and the Virginia Small Aircraft Transportation System (VSATS), the research arm of the state Department of Aviation — to demonstrate and evaluate the workings of a remote airport air traffic control tower. Worldwide, onl…
