National Air Traffic Services

[mikey4444]

Amazing time lapse animation ! Media URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30108947
Description:

[FrogNog]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30108947

[mikey4444]

Thanks FrogNog ! I am not quite awake yet !

[Clanad]

A significant advance was made in aircraft separation as early as 1998 in most of Europe for airplanes flying above 33,000 feet (Flight Level 330) above mean sea level (ASL). Previously the aircraft were separated by 2,000 feet vertically, but new altimetry and auto-flight equipment permitted the aircraft to be separated by only 1,000 feet. The new separation rules were known as Reduced Vertical Separation Mimimums (RVSM... aviation is a world driven by acronyms and abbreviations) and were adopted in most segments of the world by 2008 and then included airspace down to FL290.

Without RVSM, traffic would have been greatly slowed since the volume of airspace would not have accomodated the increased traffic under the old rules.

I can clearly remember my first head on encounter under the new rules... FL350 on a severe clear night between Denver, Colorado and Dallas, Texas... Boeing 727... (Mr. Boeing's finest in my estimation) and all three of us in the front office saw the oncoming traffic (after an alert from Air Traffic Control (ATC)) at about 10 miles. Closure rate was nearly 900 miles per hour so we each had the opportunity for only one rapidly indrawn breath. My First Officer said "Close, huh?" at which point the Flight Engineer (a previous Captain retired due to age) said... "Actually, he was nearly 305,000 millimeters away... just depends on one's perspective..."

[Zacs-Master]

Impressive Mikey. And a little scary.

[choux]

I think you were beaten to it ;)

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterBank/Question1380408.html