Building on growing support for the use of digital and remote towers in the U.S., a group of aviation stakeholders has formed the Digital Tower Technology Coalition to advocate for the implementation across the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), the organization announced Wednesday morning. Comprising U.S. airports, regional partners, technology developers and integrators, and other stakeholders, the coalition has laid out a series of priorities to help guide the safe implementation of such technology.
These towers enable air traffic controllers to remotely service airports through the use of digital equipment, with a series of cameras that provide a real-time, high-definition, 360-degree view of the runways and surrounding airspace. The FAA had pilot programs underway in Leesburg, Virginia, and Fort Collins, Colorado, to test the technologies, but shelved those projects earlier this decade after deciding the agency needed to establish standards for these towers. After that, the program seemingly languished as remote towers began to take root in multiple locations in Europe, with the largest remote tower center in Norway managing more than a dozen separate airfields.
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