ABSTRACT
Air Traffic Control (ATC) consoles were originally designed by engineers to accommodate technical equipment, giving priority to mechanical and electronic requirements. In 1970, in a simulation for the Rome area Secondary Surveillance radar, which provided a numerical identifier and an indication of height, made the “shrimp boat” obsolete, but horizontal displays were still used occasionally. By 1971, simulations of planned systems did not use horizontal displays, although they were still used for the “dummy” sectors, probably due to a shortage of vertical displays. The Operational Displays and Input Development simulations were intended originally as “quick and dirty” experiments to resolve problems in the introduction of electronic display systems. The trend in control console design has been away from specialised units designed to accommodate special-purpose devices towards more generic units, designed to employ standard displays and control devices.
