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Case Studies - Aviation

Swanwick Air Traffic Control Centre

Our involvement
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The development of a new air traffic control (ATC) system at Swanwick to replace a longstanding one at West Drayton was always going to be a huge undertaking. The £400 million project would be the largest purpose-built ATC centre in the world, and involved a new building as well as the most advanced computerised ATC system in the world.

But the project met with repeated delays. In 1992, it was due to be operational in 1996; but by 1997, the date had been put back to 1999. The project came in for a great deal of scrutiny, including from the Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport. By 1998, the building was complete but there were still problems with the computer systems. There were fundamental questions about the continued investment and the Select Committee asked for an independent technical audit.

QinetiQ (then known as DERA) was chosen to conduct the audit, and investigate when - or even whether) the Swanwick system would work properly, and if the existing ATC system would work reliably until it was ready.
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What we did
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We assembled a team with the specialist skills to deal with the four crucial areas:

  • system and software engineering
  • project management
  • human factors
  • operational analysis.

The publicity about Swanwick had focused on the computer system itself, and our initial assessment confirmed that this was the area that needed most attention. However, there were other areas that were also critical to the overall success of the project, and to the return on investment.

So over several months we examined the new computer system in detail, examined documents, code and other material. The team also checked the availability of the existing system, operator training, demand forecasts and overall management.

There were long and detailed discussions with people from board-level managers to programmers and operators, in both NATS and Lockheed Martin, who supplied the computer systems.

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The results and benefits
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At the end of the examination, we concluded that the continued investment in Swanwick was justified. The system would eventually perform as it was meant to, and the existing system could be relied on until then.

However, we highlighted several areas where the work going on could be improved. And we knew that even if these suggested changes were adopted, the operational date would be a year later than that proposed by NATS.

Our recommendations were accepted, and our report was quoted frequently in parliament during the ongoing debates about Swanwick. As we had predicted in 1988, the system went live in January 2002.
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Anything is possible - just ask
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This is a prime example of how we are applying our knowledge and technological expertise to complicated, multi-dimensional projects, to find solutions to problems.

We could do the same for you. Whatever your requirements or problems, we have the ideas, know how and solutions.
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