The steady growth of civil aviation has produced a corresponding increase in the size and complexity of the system for air traffic surveillance and control. To meet the operational demands forecast for the end of the century, it is anticipated that the system must not only continue to grow but also undergo a change in character, making a transition from a man-intensive to a machine-intensive system. It is foreseen that automation will be introduced to replace the human operator in several major areas such as surveillance, much decision making, and most communication. While there will remain a core of undelegable human tasks, the role of man is expected to evolve from an operator aided by machines to a manager of automated processes and a director of machine resources. This paper examines the prospective functions and duties of man in a future system, where most surveillance and control activities have been assigned to automata. The implications of this man-machine task allocation are traced in terms of normal operational and managerial responsibilities for man and in terms of the strategies and backup requirements applicable in states of equipment failure.
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