Dear statisticians and/or anoraks....

Billy Onions · 14th Sep 2005, 16:38

Does anybody out there know the equivalent square mile size of the footprint of the UK airspace (controlled), or the London FIR for that matter? Never thought my life would bring me to ask this question but there you are. Any help appreciated, but a bizarre question I grant you so none expected.

Billy Onions

Carbide Finger · 14th Sep 2005, 19:14

Go here www.ais.org.uk for the coords of the London FIR boundaries and a bit of trigonometry and, voila!

When you've worked it out, could you tell us the answer?

CF

PPRuNe Radar · 14th Sep 2005, 19:30

From the NATS website:

Quote:

Factfile

Swanwick controls 200,000 square miles of airspace above England and Wales – among the busiest and most complex in the world – with the exception of London and south-east area below 24,000 feet and the Manchester area below 21,000 feet.

Controllers at the Scottish Area Control Centre handle aircraft flying in (geographically) Europe’s largest flight information region. The centre covers an area of over 190,000 square miles.

Shanwick Oceanic centre covers an area of over 633,000 square miles.

Of course the eagle eyed will note that the volume statement in paragraph 1 and that in paragraph 2 don't quite stack up

Billy Onions · 15th Sep 2005, 15:03

God bless you sirs, CF I'll post my guesstimate when I've cleared the decks and done my maths.

Cheers

chrisN · 15th Sep 2005, 21:34

What definition of area?

(a) If it is all that touches the ground but no more - i.e. (all UK within the boundaries of London and Scottish FIRs) minus (all class G at ground/sea level) it is one answer - I think the smallest number it could be.

(b) If it it (a) plus any CTA and TMA airspace, it gets bigger.

(c) If it is all lower level airspace below FL245 including all airways, it is bigger still.

(d) if it includes all CAS above FL 245, it is "(all UK within the boundaries of London and Scottish FIRs)" isn't it? i.e. the whole lot.

By the way, I am ignoring in the above - except in (d) - isolated ATZ's and MATZ's, but I assume that even in (a) all "isolated" CTR's would be included.

If that is not what Billy means, where am I going wrong?

Which definition does NATS use in its website figures quoted above?

Chris N.

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