Originally Posted by
eglnyt
I agree, NATS decided a long time ago to shut down it's software development department and also has little or no expertise in modern hardware. It decided to rely on "partners" to provide those areas of expertise. That probably wasn't wise, expecting your suppliers to fulfill your "intelligent customer" role requires a lot of trust that few suppliers, in my experience, deserve.
I think NATS partners are relying on there being no innovators. NATS long ago gave up any ability other than choosing it's partners from a list with little choice.
I'm intrigued as to how this open source idea works. I can see how a third party might develop a UAS product that you might be able to ring fence to particular airspace but I can't see how you could extend that to the mainstream ATC system. I've seen the horror across the industry at the thought of putting stuff on the cloud, mostly unfounded I'd add, so that would be way out of the comfort zone of both ANSPs & their airline customers.
And that insularity is why we're running sixty year old software and sticking our head in the technological sand. Suppliers will operate in their own interest, unless, they operate in the interests of the community - open source. NATS partners only want innovators if they can buy them, to stop them becoming a threat. A community operates in the community’s interest - look at the expertise here. All airspace will be integrated soon enough. NATS doesn't even know where or how this overlays its comfort zone...hence the patient needs the prescription, not pontificating about it.