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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2174.PDF
FLIGHT International, 20 September 1962 509 INDUSTRY International Flight Systems Products Company News Flight Systems TV in Traffic Control The radar con- -.rollers at Southern Air Traffic Control Centre at London Heathrow will shortly have Marconi closed-circuit television dis plays above their consoles, to give them from a central recording room the informa tion they formerly had individually written for them, at their console, by an assistant. In this way the assistants will work in a separate area, in greater comfort, and the controllers will be able to select by push button any one of the dozen or so different groups of flight information being produced to cover aircraft in the various airways sectors around London. Flight plan information is written with chinagraph pencils on edge-lit plastic panels and viewed from behind by specially modified Marconi vidicon cameras giving a very high-definition picture. Nearby are racks for the special back-up and switching equipment, the whole complex being laid out to provide several spare sets of equip ment for instant replacement of any faulty units. There is a separate workshop area and equipment can be quickly plugged-in for iining-up. Each controller has before him a special 8£in orange-on-black TV monitor, aligned with the longer side vertical, on which he can see the flight-plan information without flicker and without distortion, even at the very edges of the screen. The TV is also in the same colours as the radar tube. There are 15 writing positions, three of them spares, and some 25 monitors. The controllers can now be better grouped than before. Some have two TV monitors, where they require two sets of information simul taneously. All can select any of the groups of information. The system can also accept composite signals from outside sources, allowing for future expansion. Extreme reliability and rapid replacement of parts has been a basic requirement of the system. Bright Radar Display In co-operation with MoA, Marconi have installed at London Gatwick a new bright radar display allowing the circuit controller in the tower to view in normal light conditions the sur veillance display from the Marconi S.232 airfield radar. The display is based on an English Electric E 702 direct view storage tube coated with a high-efficiency, low persistence phosphor. Behind the face is a fine mesh screen which is covered by a low-speed flood beam of electrons. The mesh thus tends to become negative, but parts of it become positive when affected by the radar signals beamed by a high-speed electron stream. The radar signals are thus almost continuously written through the mesh and will persist for 10 to 15 minutes. A positive pulse on the mesh will erase the picture instantly, or the persistence of the picture can be varied to suit requirements. Elliott 900 Series Computer Briefly men tioned in our report of electronic equip ment at the SBAC Display on September 13 were the new Elliott 900 series mobile digital electronic computers. Claimed to be fastest of their size and the smallest of their speed yet developed, the 900 series can make 50,000 calculations per second, but weighs 1001b and is contained in a 3 cu ft case suitable for installation in a light road vehicle. Stored programme operation, modular construction and resistance to extreme environmental conditions are addi tional features. Silicon transistors and diodes throughout promise high reliability. The working store holds up to 8,192 words with a cycle time of 6microsec: the fixed store up to 4,096 words with a cycle time of 3microsec. A peripheral unit caters for various inputs and outputs and the programme control unit allows four simul taneous programmes. Proposed applica tions include the Mobile Fire Brigade defence control system, navigation, fire- control, surveying and meteorological data processing. The Order Book Ekco Electronics have won a £115,000 order to supply E.190 weather radar with lightweight scanners for Viscounts and Friendships of Trans Australia Airlines. Deliveries have already begun and will be completed by the end of this year. S.T.C. are installing STAN.7/8/9 1LS Southern Air Traffic Control Centre at London Heathrow is putting into operation a system of displaying flight information to radar controllers by Marconi closed-circuit television. At left, the controllers and their TV monitors: right, one of the assistants writing on edge-lit plastic, which is viewed from behind by the TV camera
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