I know by responding to BIK I'm condemning the rest of us to a 2,000 word waffle, but I can't leave some of those things he said untouched.
In the description of the way the integrated TCAS/ADSB anti-collision cockpit display works, the glaring inadequacy of the system was that noone knows what level the other guy/guys is/are levelling of at. So you have 20 jets all jockeying for position into Dubai, all flying free flight routes but all coming together to make their approach, they can see all the other aircraft, but none of them know what the other aircrafts intentions are. They don't know that 5 of them are spearing off to Sharjah shortly, or levelling off to overfly for Abu Dhabi, they don't know that one of them is just in the process of diverting right around a buildup of CB's. Noone knows anyone elses intentions. An ATC does and it is their job to regulate all this and somehow make it work. Now you'll say they'll be talking to each other. So you have 20 aircraft all trying to ascertain what all the other guys are about to do. The frequency would be constantly jammed and it would be a confused mess. And the last things these pilots want to be doing is finding out what the other guys are doing when his main job is setting the aircraft up for a landing.
Over here of those 20 jets half are from the Eastern bloc countries and their english is marginal to say the least so noone will understand anyone and the the Big Sky around the Emirates, will very quickly become way too small.
This is the reason why there will always be a third party Planner, Separator, Sequencer and radio operator, otherwise known as an ATC.
Honestly the technology we have today, as highlighted by the Global Hawk flights, allows aircraft to be flown by a ground based operator. So before you start squawking on about the extinction of ATC's, I think the future of pilots may be more in jeapordy as the use of this technology becomes more advanced and widely used. Wouldn't that annoy you if in 20 years time us ground based radio men are flying the planes as well
