Quote - "Then FDPS I at Prestwick has been capable of fully automatic operation since it went into service in 1987. NATS just wouldn't let us write the code that pressed the ACCEPT button every time the controller was asked a question. And it was FULLY automatic because OACC operated with an HF outstation, not over VHF. Every piece of information had to go via the computer."
It seems NewModelATC has a very different recollection of events leading up to the (much delayed) introduction of FDPS1 at Shanwick OACC. During my time with the acceptance team at Farnborough, I seem to remember lots of CAA-specified functionality being simplified or even deferred (omitted) as either being "too difficult" or "too time-consuming" whilst the project dragged on. I joined the team at "eighteen months before O-date" and left, more than two years later, at "eighteen months before O-date".
Still, that last bit was good practice for nearly everything else that happened in NATS since ...
NN