Latest Nats Podcast Episodes
Serving from the skies - London's amazing emergency services pilots
NATS Altitude - April 24, 2024 16:00 - 47 minutesWith such unique requirements, one of the most essential and complex users of our skies are the emergency services. In this month’s Altitude, we’re joined by pilots Captain Andrew Brandt from the National Police Air Service and Captain David Rolfe from London Air Ambulance Service to learn abo...
30 - Shaping our future skies
NATS Altitude - March 15, 2024 12:00 - 50 minutesFrom delivering airspace modernisation and integrating drones through to understanding the impact of AI and the ever pressing need to address aviation’s climate impact, the list of priorities for leaders in air traffic management is a long and complex one. Our industry is in the midst of a per...
29 - Winter Operations: Finnish Snow-how
NATS Altitude - March 01, 2024 16:00 - 45 minutesIce, snow, howling winds and temperatures as low as minus 30.C are hardly ideal conditions to be running an international airport, but that’s the reality for the team at Rovaniemi, Finland’s second busiest airport. In beautiful Lapland, sitting on the edge of the Arctic Circle, the near consta...
28 - The Human Factor
NATS Altitude - January 25, 2024 10:00 - 57 minutesHuman Factors is the understanding of ‘the human in the loop’. It’s about how people behave and interact both with technology and each other, and it’s something that has become fundamental to safety across aviation and a host of other industries. But what really is Human Factors? Where did it c...
27 - Concorde: 20 years on
NATS Altitude - November 30, 2023 14:00 - 49 minutesFor more than 25 years, Concorde was the world's only successful supersonic airliner. Flying faster than the rotation of the earth, it could cross the Atlantic in just two and a half hours, with passengers arriving at JFK before they left Heathrow. Now, 20 years after its final ever flight from...
26 - Artificial Intelligence and Aviation
NATS Altitude - November 09, 2023 17:00 - 51 minutesCan we expect Artificial Intelligence – heralded by just about everyone as the next great technology leap forward - to have a role in air traffic management? But how can we look beyond the hype and understand what this technology could really do for aviation? When is it right for AI to play a ...
25 - Airspace Modernisation: Transforming the Skies
NATS Altitude - July 27, 2023 10:00 - 48 minutesAirspace – our invisible motorways in the sky – is the underpinning of the entire aviation industry. Vital to the safe operation of tens of thousands of flights every single day, it is an infrastructure relied on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to enhance the UK’s global connections. But it is ...
24 - Marking the 75th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift
NATS Altitude - June 26, 2023 05:00 - 31 minutesThe Berlin Airlift was a significant episode in the beginnings of the Cold War, with American, British, and French aircrews flying hundreds of daily cargo flights to deliver essential supplies into a West Berlin blockaded by the Soviet Union. Despite impossible odds, Berlin was sustained by air...
23 - Operation Golden Orb: Planning the King's Coronation Flypast
NATS Altitude - May 11, 2023 16:00 - 47 minutesWhile the weather may have played its part, Saturday 6 May saw a wonderful flypast over central London to mark the coronation of King Charles III. But what does it really take to organise such a spectacle in what is some of the world’s busiest airspace and why does the weather have such an impac...
22 - How to become an Air Traffic Controller
NATS Altitude - April 21, 2023 12:00 - 42 minutesNATS has just reopened recruitment for trainee air traffic controllers, but what does that process look like and what kind of career can successful candidates look forward to? In this episode of Altitude we’re exploring the whole recruitment process, from understanding the requirements and the ...
21 - Mourning a Monarch: Silencing the skies for the State Funeral of The Queen
NATS Altitude - February 13, 2023 11:00 - 44 minutesAs the world mourned the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, plans for the first state funeral of a British monarch in more than 70 years were being put into action. As a mark of respect, it was agreed that aircraft would not overfly the funeral or procession from Central London to Winds...
20 - Drones: Realising the Uncrewed Aviation Revolution
NATS Altitude - November 25, 2022 11:00 - 47 minutesFrom transforming how urgent goods are moved around the world to surveying infrastructure in remote, dangerous environments and aiding accurate, rapid emergency response, uncrewed aviation has long promised to revolutionise our lives and the aviation industry. But unleashing that potential mean...
19 - Memories of 9/11: Shutting Down the Sky
NATS Altitude - September 20, 2022 14:00 - 51 minutesThis year is the 21st anniversary of the tragic events of 11 September 2001. Those of us who are old enough to remember it will never forget where we were or what we were doing when we heard the news. Most of us probably then spent the next few hours glued, horrified to the rolling news coverage...
18 - Urban Air Mobility: Air taxis and aviation's next generation
NATS Altitude - August 18, 2022 15:00 - 47 minutesThis episode of Altitude we’re exploring the next generation of aviation and airspace users. Air taxis, mass drone operations and spaceports may sound like science fiction, but it is a future that is far closer than you might think Within a few years, a drone could be dropping your prescriptio...
17 - Being a controller at the Royal International Air Tattoo
NATS Altitude - July 07, 2022 17:00 - 44 minutesIt’s airshow season! The sight and sound of stunning air displays and incredible aerobatic performances by some of the world’s best pilots is hard to beat. But with Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) just a week away, what does it take to plan, manage and safely deliver a truly spectacular ...
17 - Being a controller at the Royal International Air Tattoo
NATS Altitude - July 07, 2022 17:00 - 44 minutesIt’s airshow season! The sight and sound of stunning air displays and incredible aerobatic performances by some of the world’s best pilots is hard to beat. But with Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) just a week away, what does it take to plan, manage and safely deliver a truly spectacular ...
16 - Reimagining air traffic management for a post Covid world
NATS Altitude - June 09, 2022 12:00 - 46 minutesAfter a tumultuous two years it feels like the aviation industry is finally emerging from the shadow of the Covid crisis. But while the skies are getting busier, the recovery remains uncertain and uneven, especially in many parts of the world. What role then, can air traffic management play in...
Altitude 15: Whatever the weather
NATS Altitude - May 05, 2022 15:00 - 56 minutesThe weather influences all our lives, from whether you’ll regret not taking that umbrella to wishing you’d packed the sun cream, but for air traffic control the weather is an obsession. Rain, wind, snow, fog and thunderstorms can all conspire to overturn well-rehearsed plans, resulting in a hu...
15 - Whatever the weather
NATS Altitude - May 05, 2022 15:00 - 56 minutesThe weather influences all our lives, from whether you’ll regret not taking that umbrella to wishing you’d packed the sun cream, but for air traffic control the weather is an obsession. Rain, wind, snow, fog and thunderstorms can all conspire to overturn well-rehearsed plans, resulting in a hu...
14 - General Aviation: Returning to the Skies
NATS Altitude - March 24, 2022 14:00 - 49 minutesAs the days get longer and the weather improves, aviation enthusiasts across the country will be taking to the skies in their thousands to explore the world from up above. After two years of Covid restrictions limiting the amount of flying time for many pilots, we’d like to support the General ...
13 - Dealing with Emergencies: The story of BAW38
NATS Altitude - January 31, 2022 20:00 - 48 minutesOn 17 January 2008, flight BAW38 crash landed short of the runway at Heathrow Airport following a total loss of power to both engines. Remarkably there were no fatalities, but it remains the most serious commercial aircraft accident in the UK in recent years. The fact that it did not end in tra...
12 - Die Hard 2: Myth-busting a Christmas Classic
NATS Altitude - January 05, 2022 17:00 - 51 minutesAside from being one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time, the timeless classic Die Hard 2 also features some of the closest depictions of air traffic control yet committed to celluloid The story of how a terrorist group manages to commandeer an entire airport on Christmas Eve, while a ...
11 - Reopening, Recovering and Resilience: The Future of Airport Operations
NATS Altitude - October 23, 2021 11:00 - 48 minutesAfter a hiatus of 18 months, the World ATM Congress returns to Madrid at the end of the month, but what kind of show can we expect as the industry continues to feel the effects of the Covid crisis? Despite encouraging signs of recovery, traffic levels remain far below pre-pandemic levels in ...
10 - Chief Executive Special
NATS Altitude - September 30, 2021 10:00 - 46 minutesAltitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. The last 18 months has been a period of extraordinary turmoil for the aviation industry, and even now as much of the rest of the world begins to recover, UK air traffic remains at around 50% of 2019 levels. So, what are the long-term prospects for aviat...
9 - Volcanic Ash: Preparing for the Unexpected
NATS Altitude - August 23, 2021 15:00 - 46 minutesAltitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. It’s now 11 years since a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded flights across the UK and much of northwest Europe. For six days in April 2010, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (or E-15) left millions of passengers stranded around the world. Fears ...
2 - Going digital: Are digital control towers really the future?
NATS Altitude - August 23, 2021 14:00 - 47 minutesAltitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. A decade ago, digital towers were a niche concept, confined to a small part of the industry. Today and they are an operational reality for airports around the world. From London to Singapore via Budapest and Colorado, airports of all sizes are now going...
3 - The Birth of Air Traffic Control: 100 years of keeping the skies safe
NATS Altitude - August 23, 2021 14:00 - 45 minutesAltitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. On 25 February 1920, the UK Air Ministry gave approval for the construction of a new building at London Croydon Airport, to be ‘erected 15 feet above ground level’ and with ‘large windows to be placed on all four walls’. This building was to be known as ...
4 - Research and Innovation Priorities for Aviation in a Post-Covid World
NATS Altitude - August 23, 2021 14:00 - 45 minutesAltitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. COVID-19 has had a massive impact on air travel, with traffic and passenger figures reduced to pre-2000 levels in many regions, but there remains cause to be optimistic about the future… Unmanned aviation, Automation and Artificial Intelligence all prom...
5 - Airport recovery: a vision for post-covid operations
NATS Altitude - August 23, 2021 14:00 - 45 minutesAltitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. While the industry may now be eyeing the prospect of a recovery from the covid crisis, for many airports, plans for expensive new ground-based infrastructure may yet remain on ice for the foreseeable future. Being able to maximise the efficiency of exis...
6 - Can aviation really deliver a Net Zero future?
NATS Altitude - August 23, 2021 14:00 - 46 minutesAltitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. Climate change represents an existential challenge to the aviation industry. We need to act now not just because it’s the right thing to do for the future of our planet, but because failure to do so will see flying become more and more socially unaccept...