Praxis appointed to work on the biggest change in air traffic control systems since the introduction of radar

Praxis, a leading specialist in critical systems engineering has been appointed by National Air Traffic Services (NATS) to work on a £10 million Air Traffic Control (ATC) partnering contract. Praxis will write the specification and develop the software for a new ATC System called iFACTS which will trigger the biggest change in ATC since the introduction of radar.

The UK government predicts a doubling of air passenger numbers by 2020 and a trebling by 2030 so the introduction of iFACTS is vital. This new technology, installed at the London Area Control Centre, Swanwick, will bring significant safety and capacity benefits.

iFACTS – Interim Future Area Control Tools Support – will not only provide Air Traffic Controllers with a set of advanced tools to increase capacity to meet the growing demand from the civil aviation industry, it will also alert Controllers to flights which are not following their flight plan and detect medium term conflicts, which will also enhance safety capability. 

Praxis has written the specification and developed the new software for iFACTS. The company’s work will build on the NATS-led design, and include the use of advanced software engineering. The contract includes training NATS staff in techniques from Correctness by Construction, Praxis' approach for developing very low defect software in critical applications. 

Keith Williams, Praxis Managing Director, said "It is extremely exciting to be able to deploy our capability in critical software on the iFACTS project. Praxis is working with NATS at all levels to meet the challenges of the project and ensure its success."

NATS has pioneered research and development of advanced air traffic control tools for several years from its simulator and research centre at Hurn.  The iFACTS project will deliver a subset of these tools onto the system at the company’s main en-route Control Centre at Swanwick in Hampshire. 

The system monitors radar for the Controllers, and assesses the viability of various options available to them for manoeuvring aircraft, as well as giving them more time to make decisions. Traditional paper flight information strips will be replaced with electronic data lines and more sophisticated split-screen displays.  The system has been designed for robustness, and has built-in contingency.

Final trials of the iFACTS tools are currently under way at Hurn and a demonstration system is already installed in Swanwick’s training unit for controllers to try out.  Following full development, training, and installation of new workstations at Swanwick, iFACTS will be introduced into service.

Paul Barron, NATS’ Chief Executive commented:
"This is one of the most exciting developments in the aviation industry in decades and we’re now close to introducing it."