LEESBURG, Va. — The first phase of the Leesburg Airport Remote Tower Demonstration Program wrapped up Oct. 26 after four months of collecting data.
The next phase of the program will go through mid-2016, with the ultimate goal of operating remote air traffic control towers at airports that are now non-towered.
The technology was developed by Saab, which partners with Virginia SATSLab (VSATS) and Leesburg Executive Airport to demonstrate the Remote Tower technologies at Leesburg Executive Airport.
The FAA, the Virginia Department of Aviation and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) are serving in advisory roles in the program. In addition, both the FAA and NATCA provided controllers to support the data collection activities.
With the phase-one milestone now achieved, the data will be analyzed and form the basis of a report to be presented to the FAA for approval in order to move on to the next phase of the demonstration.
“This is a great example of public-private partnership where government and industry work together to drive progress and development,” said Mike Gerry, president and CEO of Saab Sensis Corporation, one of the partners in the Leesburg demonstration. “We look forward to starting the next phase of the demonstration, which will include active controlling at Leesburg Airport, and moving towards the ultimate goal of approving this new technology for use in the United States.”
Here comes the user fee’s!
While this is a great technology that can be applied to airports that truly need a tower, my concern is that now because the government can do it, they will start putting towers at every little airport available regardless of actual need.
My first thought too!