Here is a thread to highlight many of the great towers that grace airports around the world. To start off the thread we will look at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport tower and their radar center. Thanks to Sam Chui we can see behind the scenes of this operation of perhaps the busiest ATC in Europe.
Here is the control tower at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Certainly an interesting design and at one point was the tallest ATC tower in the world at 132.2-meters.
Tower Tech! The real-time transmission of four-dimensional trajectory data has the incredible potential to greatly improve an aircraft’s trajectory prediction. By reducing the inaccuracy of current air traffic management (ATM) prediction models by approximately 30-40%, the Trajectory Based Operations in 4 Dimensions (4D-TBO) project is helping to pave the way to a more sustainable management of tomorrow’s air traffic.
That's fine, please do correct me if i'm not 100% accurate. Bare in mind, you are the German resident not me!
Sorry Ron, I did not post in order to correct You. I was just amused by those lazy sods in their lonely tower, when I saw their breakfest roles on the desk. I could really imagine them spilling their coffee, if an unexpected aircraft would be calling in, just asking for the local QNH . When I compared that picture with the rather large hard working crew on the control tower of the international airport of Hamburg on a normal busy day, it really forced me to that post. This is a very interesting thread, as especially we pilots tend to forget our important parntners on the ground, who are playing a vital role on the safe conduction of air traffic around those busy airports. Pilots and ATC, those stories could fill books . And Ron, I can assure You, on many of those stories, the ATC guys are the winner. HTMO9
This little airfield of Uetersen (EDHE) I have mentioned above, a grass airstrip for aircraft up to 12.500 lbs and gliders has about 35.000 T/O and landings per year. The Airbus airfield has may be 12.000 or less per year . I fly my gliders and my single engine props out of this field. Those little airfields actually have no tower with official air traffic control, they only have an aviation supervisor with no air traffic control authority. Pilots take off and land on their own discretion. They are normally employed by the local flying clubs or the airfield ownership. This does not mean, those little airfields do not have excellent facilities. Nice restaurants, adequad hangar space, repair and maintenance facilities. etc. But those VFR only, non commercial airfields are fun to fly in and out of. And those "supervisors of flying" are mostly friendly and very helpful persons. And with 35.000 movements per year, they are pretty busy. Will say, it does not have to be always an International airport, to get into the air .
This is the new ATC Tower at Frankfurt Internatiol Airport. Biggest and busiest Airport in Germany but during Corona one could play soccer on the apron. The old ATC Tower of Frankfurt has been technically updated and is kept in Stby in case of technical shutdowns of the main tower. This is the new ATC tower of Berlin Brandenburg, the endless construction site at our capitol city. Also both ATC Towers are of very similar design (same achitect), the Tower in post 3 seems to be Frankfurt ATC tower. The difference is difficult to tell, even for me, havving landed myself on both airports. HTMO9 P.S. And I have to apologize to the ATC guys on the Finkenwerder Tower. On the picture these are NOT there breakast rolls, these are their computer pointing decices (mouse). But I insist on my joke with them spilling their coffee, if an unexpected aircraft calls in .
Tampa Airport tower is to be replaced in a 2bn dollar upgrade at the airport. https://www.tampabay.com/news/busin...g-control-tower-must-be-replaced-castor-says/
Interesting news from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concerning tower design. New air traffic control towers built at municipal and smaller airports will feature sustainable design elements, such as recycled steel and ground-source heating and cooling, according to the FAA. There are over 30 candidate airports that are in line to benefit from the new design because their current towers have outlived usefulness based on current usage.
While not a tower, this is ATC Radar in Chile...and it is completely solar powered. It is the first of its kind in the world and it is now operational. “For DGAC, at a strategic level, this air traffic control radar station is undoubtedly a great contribution to air safety in the north of the country where there is currently a high air traffic density that will be fully covered by this new system, given its measurement range. [This range] is the highest in the market at 100 nautical miles in the case of the primary radar and 250 nautical miles in the case of the secondary radar,” said DGAC systems director Juan Alegría.
