At first glance, the image that flashed on the computer screen looked like an ordinary road map. Then John Richardson, acting manager of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), began tapping at his keyboard. With one click he got a close-up view of New York, divided not along town or county lines but along sectors of airspace. With another click on the key he eliminated hundreds of tiny black dots showing the location of low-flying aircraft and private jets. What remained on the screen were larger, winged symbols representing commercial airliners. With a few more key taps he color-coded the jetliners according to their airport destination.
To computer fans at ease with the graphic interpretation of Max Headroom, the FAA demonstration might seem simple. But to air-traffic professionals gathered in the agency’s sixth-floor “ war room, ” it represented a technological breakthrough. Before last week, FAA radar data showing the location of planes flying over the U.S. could be shown only dot on computer screens at one or more of the airline agency’s 20 regional control centers. Now, all that information has been combined and displayed on a single screen, giving the nation’s air-traffic controllers a unique view of overhead traffic patterns as they unfold from coast to coast. Exclaimed Richardson, with pride: “ It’s unbelievable! ”
Last week’s display — more evolutionary than revolutionary — involved the conveying of data on aircraft position, altitude (海拔), speed and identification from each of the regional air-traffic control centers to the FAA’s Washington headquarters. There the information is combined into a manageable whole by an assembly of Apollo work-stations and displayed through custom-designed software on as many as three dozen screens. The objective of the system is to provide centralized management of traffic problems as they may build up at any of the country’s 12,500 airports. Cost of the new computer operation so far: about $2 million. The FAA’s final goal, though, is a multibillion-dollar air-traffic control system so highly automated that it can monitor flights and direct pilots with little or no human disturbance.
Such a system is far in the future, but the new linkup may have arrived just in time. A badly overburdened U.S. air-traffic system has pushed control tower errors to record levels. Midair close calls added 215 in the previous three months of 1987, while errors by overtaxed air controllers jumped 18%. The safety crisis urged the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board to recommend the FAA take “ immediate action ” to reduce air traffic at key airports before the expected summer air-travel crush. FAA officials say that with their new control system they will be able to meet those recommendations without reducing the number of flights entering or leaving the critical barriers. Also supervisors can monitor with greater precision specific sections of airspace that are becoming dangerously overcrowded. Traffic jams can then be relieved or prevented by shifting the altitude of some flights or rerouting others to avoid jammed areas.
【小题1】What can be concluded about the FAA demonstration?| A．It can present a close-up view of the New York Metropolitan area along town or county lines. |
| B．It makes it easy to highlight the location of low-flying private aircrafts by tiny black dots. |
| C．It can show the remaining larger, winged symbols that represent commercial airliners. |
| D．It makes it complicated to color-code the jetliners according to their airport destination. |
| A．To show the technology breakthrough of airline agencies. |
| B．To manage air traffic problems in a concentrated way. |
| C．To inspect the overall situation in 20 regional control centers. |
| D．To train the operators to control air traffic more efficiently. |
| A．The heavily burdened system has driven control tower errors to record levels. |
| B．Control tower errors increased by over 18% in the first three months of 1987. |
| C．Midair close calls increased at least 215 in the previous three months of 1987. |
| D．It’s impossible for supervisors to shift the altitude of some flights or reroute others. |
| A．It can operate flights and direct pilots with little or no human disturbance. |
| B．It recommends reducing flights entering or leaving the critical barriers. |
| C．It enables supervisors to monitor specific sections of airspace more precisely. |
| D．It avoids most air traffic jams by changing the altitude of all flights at ease. |
