Customer service

Although the Federal Aviation Administration's new oceanic air traffic control system will be based on an existing system, contractor Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management plans some user-friendly tweaks before rolling it out.

Changes affect display windows, the colors and icons on the displays, the way the data blocks that describe aircraft are offset and the way flight plan data is formatted, said Sue Corcoran, vice president of North American programs at Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management.

The Lockheed Martin system combines New Zealand's oceanic air traffic control system with the Microprocessor En Route Automated Radar Tracking System Lockheed Martin developed for radar data processing in Anchorage.

Lockheed Martin hopes to reuse elements of other systems, such as the consoles developed for the Display System Replacement and the communications interface developed for the Host and Oceanic Computer System Replacement program, Corcoran said. That will benefit the technicians because they will already be familiar with the equipment.