This paper by the Director of Control and Navigation at the Ministry of Aviation, reviews the present state of planning for air traffic control in the United Kingdom. It indicates that whilst progress is evolutionary and continuous, big steps take place approximately every ten years. The author concentrates on four principal facets of air traffic control which cause the most acute problems, namely the medium-haul operations in densely populated areas; the terminal problem; long-distance operations over the Atlantic; and low-level, short routes in the south-east of England.

The paper outlines the basic air traffic control system of the future and indicates the ways that data processing and radar may be used. It makes a short reference to the specific problems of the supersonic aircraft and concludes by referring to two principal experimental projects now in hand to enhance our knowledge of data processing with respect to air traffic control.