GRAPEVINE, Texas, Oct. 31, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) today announced a new product that allows air traffic controllers to manage flight data through an automated processing system, helping to reduce airport delays and increase workforce productivity.
Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector designed the Real-Time Electronic Flight Data System for use by the U.S. aviation industry.
The product was introduced at the Air Traffic Control Association Conference, Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center, Oct. 30-Nov. 2. The Northrop Grumman exhibit is at booth 707.
Using touch-sensitive display screens, airport tower and terminal air traffic controllers can access and manage flight data through a central database over local and wide-area networks. Northrop Grumman created the computer-based flight data system with commercial-off-the-shelf hardware and software to achieve rapid, cost-effective development and implementation that is compliant for use by the Federal Aviation Administration.
"Air traffic controllers can now do away with the paper flight strips they use to manually coordinate and manage flight data," said Tom Arnsmeyer, vice president of security and infrastructure solutions at Northrop Grumman IT. "Northrop Grumman's electronic flight data system processes information more rapidly, reducing communication errors and allowing controllers to make more efficient use of their time."
Features of the Real-Time Electronic Flight Data System include networking capabilities that let traffic-management units observe real-time arrival and departure queues at any airport in the system. This feature alerts air traffic controllers and traffic-management units when aircraft taxi delays exceed a user-set parameter, which assists collaborative decision making and improves flight scheduling.
A built-in warning system also improves safety for air traffic controllers. The flight data system will alert these personnel to potential problems or hazards such as an aircraft holding on the runway.
Northrop Grumman Information Technology, headquartered in McLean, Va., is a trusted IT leader and premier provider of advanced IT solutions, engineering and business services for government and commercial clients. The company's technological leadership spans such areas as homeland security solutions, health IT solutions, secure wireless, cyber and physical assurance, IT and network infrastructure, managed services, knowledge management, modeling and simulation and geospatial intelligence solutions.