The invisible highway network for aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean

The virtual flight system is set up by ground-based air traffic control center to make the flight between North America and Europe safe.

Captain James Basnett controls a British Airlines super-large passenger plane that flies over the North Atlantic. More than 450 passengers enjoy services on the plane, watch movies or sleep in night flights from Boston to London. They did not know that their plane was just one of hundreds of airplanes in the air that had moved from North America to Europe.

Every night, this flying formation went east through the Atlantic Ocean. Only hours later, flights were heading west, carrying thousands of passengers to airports in the US, Canada and many other countries. How does Basnett locate the stratosphere and keep the A380 safe between countless other aircraft?

Flights in the north Atlantic sky.

Looking like a sky-fly matrix, the North Atlantic Organized Track System (OTS) is a series of virtual aerial highways created and managed by the above-mentioned system providers, excluding NAV. in Canada and NATS in the UK, with a scope for the division of the ocean. The path is always changing, rarely remaining from day to day and can vary greatly east and west. Based on the meridian and latitude networks, each flight path is defined as a straight line across the Atlantic Ocean.

Every day, at 7 am, at NAV's Canada Regional Control Center in Gander, Newfoundland, a marine planner looks at the information provided by airlines providing a combination of day flights. along with the required route and priority itinerary. Then, using a complex computer model, a series of eastbound flights were created for evening flights departing from North America in the next 12-14 hours.

By the time those flights were headed for Europe, the NATS team in Shannon, Ireland, and Prestwick, Scotland began working on the westbound route during the day, using the same process.'Our system has every meteorological model, including wind at different heights,' says Jeff Edison, manager of the Gander Regional Control Center in Canada of NAV.

The eastbound route is optimized to take advantage of the downwind due to the narrow atmospheric flow provided, which can reach speeds above 322km / h."For example, if the narrow atmospheric flow goes straight across the Atlantic without any bends, we will create a flight path at its center. Every plane wants to fly over that line, "But not every flight is suitable. Sometimes it is necessary to extend the benefits of the east wind on 2-3 routes. We call it the core routes , " Edison said.

Fixed positioning points on the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean, both as input and output of flight routes.

Normally, 5 - 14 flight routes are created every day. They are simply identified by letters. Z is the easternmost path near the southernmost, followed by the letters Y, X, and W, until all the routes of the day have names. The routes stretch from 480 to 1,130km in the north-south direction, depending on the weather. The western route is designed to limit reverse winds by avoiding narrow atmospheric currents and naming starting with the letter A.

To get on the right flight for his flight, Basnett moved northeast from Boston. Contact the air traffic control board (ATC), the A380 is arranged to go through a fixed positioning point (fix), a point above which is the entry route for Basnett. Fixed positioning points on the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean, both as input and output of flight routes. Each point has a name made up of 5 easy-to-pronounce but meaningless letters. JOOPY and IBERG are two points off Newfoundland, while MOGLO and LEKVA are near Ireland.

When the A380 flies over the Atlantic Ocean at the specified route and altitude, it will glide at the center of an imaginary box to stay at a safe distance from other aircraft. Thanks to advanced equipment and positioning processes recently put into use, the time and distance between aircraft in OTS is guaranteed to prevent collisions.