The U.K.’s air traffic control entity, NATS, has released the third in a series of computer-animated videos showing air traffic over Europe, and this is possibly the coolest one yet.
Focusing on 24 hours of air traffic over the United Kingdom, the video shows the usual influx of morning traffic over the North Atlantic tracks into airports like London Heathrow and Gatwick. Then the animation gets interesting.
A number of airplanes can be seen not following the usual approach and departure paths, but instead squiggling crazily up and down and back and forth off England’s east coast. These are military jets on training sorties.
A little later, viewers are treated to the lazy tracks of general aviation airplanes, some of them obviously on training flights of their own. This is followed by the view of helicopter traffic departing and arriving the Aberdeen Heliport (the world’s busiest) bound for North Sea oil and gas platforms.
The video wraps up with an impressive view of the whole of U.K.’s airspace. Superimposed on the screen is the title: “Airspace: The Invisible Infrastructure.”
Invisible yes, but oh so cool to watch in a two-and-a-half minute video.
See more from NATS in their Europe 24 video here.
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