Air traffic control: Automating U.S. air lanes: A review: The Federal Aviation Administration's new 20-year plan to modernize air traffic control faces rough weather

The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed an ambitious $9 billion plan to modernize and eventually automate the U.S. air traffic control system over the next 20 years. The plan, announced last January, calls for replacing IBM 9020 computers in en-route traffic centers with new and more powerful systems, automating ground-air communications systems, and replacing very high- and ultrahigh-frequency instrument landing systems with microwave landing systems. After 1990, all critical air traffic control (ATC) functions are to be fully automated, considerably reducing the number of necessary air traffic controllers.