The history of air traffic control in the United Kingdom began in the late 1950s, and early 1960s, when an integrated and coordinated system began, once radar had become sufficiently advanced to allow this.
London Airport
On 15 July 1919, the world's first commercial flight occurred, when Jerry Shaw (1892-1977) piloted a de Havilland DH.9 for Aircraft Transport and Travel from Hendon to Le Bourget airfield in Paris.Forging Empires and Oceans: Pioneers, Aviators and Adventurers - Forging the International Air Routes (1919-39), page 100, Robert Bluffield, 2014 The pilot did not have a passport. The flight been chartered by Major Pilkington, of Pilkington Glass, who paid £50 to France, and £50 back. He had missed his boat for an important business meeting.
The world's first scheduled flight was from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to France, on 24 August 1919, in a former wartime DH.4A, piloted by Captain Bill Lawford, with one passenger, Mr Stevenson-Reece.Times Tuesday 26 August 1969, page 6
Jimmy Jeffs was the world's first air traffic controller at London Airport on 22 February 1922. The Mayday callsign originated at London Airport in 1921.
In 1922 the first direction of aircraft was calculated by a goniometer, called Wireless Position Finding.
The 1922 Picardie mid-air collision started the need for defined air routes.
The Air Navigation (Consolidation) Order 1923, from 1 January 1924 stipulated that a journey log book had to be kept by all aircraft in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Smoking was prohibited from aircraft over the UK.Times Monday 24 December 1923, page 7
From 1928, radio signals from Croydon, Pulham St Mary in Norfolk and Lymm in Kent triangulated the position of aircraft; a similar system was set up by Germany in 1940, known as the Battle of the Beams.
In the early 1930s, pilots were ordered to fly at a high altitude over large zoos, so as not to cause the animals to stampede, and to fly at least 2,000 ft over large sporting events,Times Friday 26 February 1932, page 14 and historic buildings such as cathedrals.Times Wednesday 20 June 1934, page 11
On 19 November 1933, the first form of ATC began in the London Zone, with a controlled zone, but no radar
Development of radar
On the evening of 25 February 1935 at Stowe Nine Churches (Upper Stowe) in Northamptonshire, the so-called Daventry experiment took place with Robert Watson-Watt to prove that radar detection of aircraft was possible. Other subsequent technology needed for the wide deployment of radar was coordinated by Sir Edward Fennessy, of 60 Group and Sir Raymund Hart in planning Filter Rooms,Times Tuesday 19 July 1960, page 15 at RAF Bawdsey in Suffolk.
The first four radar stations were at Dover in July 1937, Canewdon in August 1937, followed by Great Bromley, and Dunkirk, Kent, with 358-feet masts, fabricated by J. L. Eve Construction.Brentwood Gazette Friday 14 September 1990, page 68
The WAAF was formed on 28 June 1939. Many women took part in air traffic control for the Battle of Britain, from 20 September 1939, and women up to age of 50 could be radar plotters.Women radar plotters
On 6 September 1939 a fault with the Canewdon CH station caused the radar to identify RAF aircraft as hostile. Hurricanes of 56 Sqn and Spitfires of 74 Sqn were dispatched, with the Spitfires of 74 Sqn mistaking 56 Sqn for enemy Bf 109 aircraft. Frank Rose and Pilot Officer Montague Hulton-Harrop are both shot down, in Hurricanes, with Hulton-Harrop killed by John Freeborn, which was the first aircraft destroyed by a Spitfire, and Freeborn was court-martialled. This became known as the Battle of Barking Creek.
On the night of 22 July 1940 a Dornier Do 17, of Kampfgeschwader 3 piloted by Leutnant Bruno Kahlfuss, became the first aircraft in aviation history to be shot down by an AI radar-equipped aircraft near Selsey, by Airborne radar a Bristol Blenheim L6836 with Mk 4 radar. The Blenheim was from the Fighter Interception at RAF Tangmere, under Peter Chamberlain, guided from the CH station at Poling, West Sussex. It has been disputed, due to being at night, if it was a German aircraft, or not. The AI radar operator was Sergeant Reginald Harry Leyland, subsequently commissioned in March 1943.Reginald Leyland The four German crew were apparently later rescued, although wounded, by a Heinkel He 59 operating from Schellingwoude.
Ground-controlled interception (GCI) was first developed in the UK during the early part of WWII, at RAF Sopley in Hampshire, close to Bournemouth. Development of the system began in October 1940, and the first ground-controlled interception took place on 1 January 1941 with the Bristol Beaufighter at RAF Middle Wallop, and the call sign Starlight.Ground-controlled interception in 1941 at RAF Sopley
The interception was enabled by 604 Squadron. The Beaufighter R2098 NG-H, equipped with the AI Mark IV radar, made the first interception with aircraft interception (AI) radar at 00.35 on 20 November 1940, thanks to radar operator Sgt John Phillipson. The interception destroyed a Junkers Ju 88A, B3-YL, of III./KG 54 from Évreux-Fauville Air Base. Birmingham had been heavily bombed that night by 439 German aircraft, guided by KG 100; the Ju 88 pilot Unteroffizier Franz Sondermeier bailed out.
The Beaufighter had four Hispano-Suiza HS.404 20mm cannon in the nose of the aircraft (the Messerschmitt Bf 109 had one), so if any enemy aircraft could be caught at close range, by its AI radar, few German aircraft would survive. Although the rate of Luftwaffe combat losses, detected by AI radar, markedly increased throughout the first half of 1941, only three German bombers destroyed over Britain in February 1941,Times Wednesday 6 November 1946, page 2 around 50 in April and 102 in May. The Luftwaffe campaign would abruptly stop in the second week of May 1941.
From late 1941, GCI would be carried out by the AMES Type 7 radar, which provided a 360 degrees view; such radar was developed at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE).
The other GCI units were at Orby in east Lincolnshire, Waldringfield in east Suffolk, Willesborough in Kent next to the present M20, Durrington, West Sussex and Avebury, by end of January 1941, being fitted from June 1941 with the AMES Type 7.
Richard Gray (radio engineer) (1902-99) of the TRE at Malvern had heard of the innovative work on GCA at MIT, with X band radar, and immediately investigated, and noted the large significance of the work to the needs of the RAF. He flew the inventor Luis Walter Alvarez across the Atlantic, who worked with the RAF in the summer of 1943.Times Monday July 12 1999, page 25
The first AI-radar equipped Beaufighters began operations on 17 September 1940, with 29 Sqn at RAF Wellingore in Lincolnshire, where the squadron was based from 8 July 1940 to 27 April 1941.The Scotsman Thursday 1 February 1945, page 4Sussex Express Friday 29 June 1945, page 8
Over Essen on 8 March 1942, the first electronic navigation of Bomber Command began, with 211 aircraft. The Gee navigation system transmitted from stations at Daventry, Stenigot and Ventnor.
The Decca Navigator System in the last year of the war had a Master Station at Buntingford, with three slave stations, red, green and purple at Stoke Holy Cross in Norfolk, East Hoathley in Sussex, and Wormleighton in Warwickshire.
Precision Approach Radar began around 1944, being tested at Hinton-in-the-Hedges Airfield, and RAF Honiley, known as AN/MPN-1.
SCS-51 was brought to the UK in 1944 by the USAAF, to help their bombers land in bad weather. It was tested by a Boeing aircraft at RAF Defford. As part of the Telecommunications Flying Unit, on 16 January 1945 at RAF Defford in Worcestershire, Boeing 247 DZ203 made the first automatic approach and landing, with the SCS-51 system, following from earlier tests.
After the war BEA planned to navigate its aircraft with the GEE system,Times Friday 23 August 1946, page 8 across Scotland and Northern Ireland.Times Friday 10 October 1947, page 2
In February 1946 there was an international conference at the headquarters of RAF Transport Command, that discussed new radar, orbit meters for orbits, and the Rebecca/Eureka transponding radar.Times Tuesday 26 February 1946, page 2
SCS-51 was installed on 1 July 1947, a GCA system.SCS-51 in 1947
The 1948 Northwood mid-air collision would result in vertical separation, of aircraft, being increased from 500ft to 1,000ft
Integration ILS was introduced on 1 March 1950, replacing SBA, or Standard Beam Approach. The SBA system at Heathrow in the 1940s was SCS-51 (being invented in the US). From 1 December 1947, in the MCA over southern England, in IFR conditions, a flight plan had to be submitted beforehand to Uxbridge Control Centre, but by November 1947, there were only 29 teleprinter operators, whereas 80 were needed.The Aeroplane 7 November 1947, page 621
Stansted had the Civil Aviation Flying Unit, from 1950. The discipline of holding patterns was established at Stansted, and at Bournemouth, and conducted flights to calibrate VOR-DME transmitters.
From 14 April 1950 the ATC centre at Raigmore moved to Prestwick; Raigmore had looked after the Northern Scottish FIR, which merged with the Central Scottish FIR.Falkirk Herald Wednesday 19 April 1950, page 4
In early 1950, there was an international discussion - whether to go with the British Decca system (long wave) or the VOR DME (VHF) system of the US.
Most of the UK ILS was the STAN 37/38 system, made by STC.
In July 1952 Gatwick was approved as a 'bad weather alternative' to Heathrow. Gatwick later opened on 9 June 1958. The first air traffic building at Heathrow was built by Taylor Woodrow, who also built the first terminal buildings.Times Friday 18 April 1969
The Southern Air Traffic Control Centre opened, on the north-west edge of Heathrow, in April 1955. It had moved from RAF Uxbridge. Heathrow: From Tents to Terminal 5 In 1959 SATCC was handling 200 commercial jet aircraft per week, with 600 per week in 1960.Times Thursday 1 September 1960, page 11 A Ferranti Hermes computer was added to SATCC in 1967, after a Ferranti Mercury computer had been added in 1960.Times Wednesday 26 July 1967, page 2
On Wednesday 18 June 1958, a £5million plan for coordinating air traffic control was announced. Four new radar centres would be built; previous to this, ATC personnel received aircraft positional information over the radio from pilots, not from any radar. The UK Air Traffic Service began in September 1959; it controlled air movements above 25,000ft.
The USA had created its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) also in 1958.
In February 1959, the ICAO chose VOR-DMET. Commonwealth countries had all voted for the British Decca system, everyone else voted for VOR-DMET.Times Saturday 21 February 1959, page 5 Parliament 18 March 1959
In late 1959, the UK was divided into three FIRs for upper airspace, and civilian and military radar would be shared.Times Saturday 22 April 1961, page 9
Experiments took place during 1960 for one radar system to look after civilian and military flights over 25,000 ft. This was the height of the Cold War, and there may have been an intrinsic security purpose to this combined system. From 1961 the combined civil-military system began, known as Joint Air Traffic Control Radar Units.Times Tuesday 21 February 1961, page 10
Instrument flight rules applied at Heathrow from 1 March 1961; previously it had only applied in bad weatherTimes Monday 27 February 1961, page 6
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