Systems integration

A recent ERA conference covered a wide range of advanced topics. The first session, “Operational Challenges”, featured civil and military contributions from airlines, the RAF and a research institute. The latter considered the fact that new airliners, runways, passenger terminals and computer‐assisted or automated air traffic control (ATC) systems will be necessary to accommodate the increasing traffic. This article reached a number of important conclusions. Between 1970 and 1990 the number of subsonic turbojet airliners almost tripled and the number of revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) quadrupled. The safety level improved continuously and finally stabilized in the last decade. The increase in production and safety was made possible by steadily improving aircraft, engines, systems and avionics, as well as by improving ATC.