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MARLBORO, Mass., (Feb. 20,
2003) – Raytheon Company’s P1 Air Traffic Control Automation
System (ATCAS) took control of the Düsseldorf airspace from the
Langen Area Control Center in Langen, Germany, on Dec. 20, 2002. The
Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS) then declared the Düsseldorf
control system fully operational.
This follows the highly successful implementation of Raytheon’s
P1 system at Langen to control the Frankfurt airspace in December 1999.
As part of the second phase in the DFS’ facilities modernization
and consolidation plan, this new achievement represents a major milestone
in Germany’s plans to consolidate the nation’s five air
traffic control centers to three and sets a new benchmark for safety
and service in air traffic control in Europe.
“This achievement is a great credit to all who worked on this
upgrade to the existing P1 foundation,” said Andrew Goldman, Raytheon’s
vice president of International Air Traffic Management Systems. “The
smooth cutover to the updated software reflects the level of confidence
that has been established by Raytheon’s long-term history of meeting
schedule targets and performance expectations for the DFS.”
This successful milestone follows a two-year development program between
DFS and Raytheon to design and implement an automation system at the
cutting edge of ATC technology. Six months of comprehensive operator
training assured DFS Düsseldorf controllers and management that
the state-of-the-art P1/ATCAS would be effective in controlling the
air traffic for their airspace, one of the busiest flight corridors
in the world. The Düsseldorf Area Control Center controls about
550,000 IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) movements a year, and Frankfurt
handles about 950,000 flight movements. This converts into about 18
million passengers a year for Düsseldorf and 56 million passengers
a year for Frankfurt.
DFS contracted with a Raytheon-led team, which included Raytheon Air
Traffic Management Systems in the US; Indra Systemas of Torrejon, Spain;
and Terma of Copenhagen, Denmark, for the development of the P1/ATCAS
for Düsseldorf airspace. This contract award followed the successful
implementation of Raytheon’s P1/ATCAS for the Frankfurt airspace
and the earlier generation DERD (Display of Extracted Radar Data) systems
at five Regional Control Centers and 12 Local Control Centers throughout
Germany in the early-to-mid 1980s.
“We are pleased to have been chosen to be the DFS partner in their
ATC modernization program,” said David MacKenzie, Raytheon’s
director for European ATM Automation Systems, “and future improvement
programs are still ahead. The excellent cooperation and teamwork between
the suppliers and the DFS program team have been key to our success.
This cooperative approach will ensure continued future success in the
DFS’ consolidation and modernization program.”
The long-term relationship between Raytheon and the DFS reflects the
level of confidence that the DFS has in Raytheon’s system design,
development and implementation capabilities in air traffic management
systems. The operational commissioning of the Düsseldorf system
occurred within days of the 25th anniversary marking the initial working
relationship between Raytheon and the DFS.
The P1 system also includes a full-time Fallback System (FBS) as an
additional safety measure. The FBS uses Raytheon’s TracView system
as a basic radar tracking system in the event of a failure of both redundant
sides of the main system.
The next release of P1 will enable the Air Control Center at Munich
to upgrade its automation system at the end of 2003. Development work
on this release is already ahead of schedule, and it is expected that
Munich controller training for the new system will begin in the second
quarter of 2003.
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2002 sales of $16.8 billion, is an
industry leader in defense, government and commercial electronics, space,
information technology, technical services, and business and special
mission aircraft. With headquarters in Lexington, Mass., Raytheon employs
more than 76,000 people worldwide.
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