Copperchase – Cranfield Airport and the Digital Tower

Copperchase is pleased to announce that it has assisted Cranfield Airport with the realisation of its innovative Digital Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower, the first of its type in the UK.

In the new Cranfield Digital Tower, the ATC Controllers are no longer accommodated in a purpose-built Tower, instead, a mast equipped with cameras and sensors overlooking the runway, captures the visual and audio environment of the airfield and relays this data back to a separate building, where the Controllers observe aircraft landing and taking off via these live camera feeds on an array of high definition monitors.

Copperchase has supplied its ATC Data System to Cranfield, comprising of: –

• AMHS ATC Messaging – ATC Message processing using the latest X.400 technology available from NATS UK.
• Flight Data Management – FDMS, Flight Data processing, Flight Strip generation and Movement Logging.
• MET Data Processing and Display System – METSYS, collection and collation of meteorological data from Copperchase installed field sensors and meteorological calculations from the Vaisala company of Finland, AviMet AWOS (Wind, Temperature, Humidity, Pressure, Cloud)
• ATIS – Terminal Information Broadcast Service, available via VHF or a dedicated telephone number.
• ATC Information Display System – ATC IDS, a general ATC data display system for user configurable data sources, Documents, Pictures, URL’s (via a Firewall Whitelist), CCTV Cameras.
• Crash Alarm System – A PLC based Button-Press Alarm system activating sounders and alarm circuits in the both the old and new Fire Stations.
• ATC Recorder – recording radio channels and telephones.

For further information on the above products and systems from Copperchase, contact sales@copperchase.co.uk.