London Terminal Control Centre
The London Terminal Control Centre (LTCC) was an
Unlike New York TRACON, LTCC uses Class A airspace. Therefore, VFR operation is prohibited.
History
The centre was opened as RAF West Drayton, a military air traffic control facility, located roughly midway between the then London airport (now London Heathrow) and RAF Northolt. The civilian control function present at this centre in 1971 became the London Air Traffic Control Centre (LATCC), operating alongside the RAF. In the early 1990s the 'Central Control Facility' (CCF) was formed within the centre to provide terminal control services to aircraft arriving at and departing from the main London airports, subsuming the existing terminal sectors in preparation for the arrival of the London area airport approach units. For this, the CCF Display and Information System (CDIS) was developed.
During January 1990, the Military Area Services Operations Room opened.[1]
In 1992 the Heathrow and Gatwick approach control units moved to West Drayton to share facilities with the CCF. The CCF and the two approach control units were moved into the new Terminal Control room in 1995, and thus became a separate entity to Area Control. To reflect the fact that there were now two civil control rooms (Area and Terminal) the centre was renamed the London Area and Terminal Control Centre, whilst retaining the same LATCC abbreviation.
RAF West Drayton formally closed in the 1990s, though military personnel remained on site until 2008.
In 1995
Civilian operations at the centre ceased in November 2007, after Terminal Control moved to Swanwick to be reunited with Area Control. Military operations moved to a new control room also at Swanwick in January 2008.
One of the last
See also
References
- ^ March 1991, p. 82.
- March, Peter R. (1991). Royal Air Force Yearbook 1991. Fairford, UK: Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.
External links
- Our control centres Archived 11 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, NATS
- "NATS - A Case Study (presentation)" (PDF). British Computer Society. 11 January 2005. Retrieved 14 December 2014.