The Development of Air Navigation in West Germany after 1945: The first ten years - when nobody knew ATC existed

The author of this documentation is German, born in 1938, an air traffic procedures and services expert of the former German Federal Administration for Air Navigation Services (BFS). During his 25 year long assignment with BFS from 1957 to 1981 he served as air traffic controller at aerodrome, approach and area control units at Hamburg control tower and approach control and the „Rhein Control“ area control centre (ARTCC) of USAFE/BFS at Birkenfeld and Frankfurt, Germany until 1972; and thereafter as ATC planner and evaluator with the BFS experimental centre Frankfurt, Germany. During his 27 year long ATC career he acquired all civil and military ATC licences of Germany and the USA, including radar (SRE and GCA). He was responsible for the operational flight tests on the implementation of digitized radar data operations in Germany, the initiator of area navigation RNAV procedures, air traffic flow control and responsible for the operational planning of the German ATC System for the 1980’ies (GATC-80). He holds a government diploma in air navigation administration & management. After his 27 year long activity with the german federal administration in working for BFS and with the USAFE (1959 to 1964) another 25 years followed in self-employed status and as director of company FSB (Air Navigation Services Advisors).

 

Frank W. Fischer participated in or managed about 50 air navigation projects of the EU, EIB, EBRD, ICAO, EUROCONTROL and the ATC industry in 20 different countries, was engaged in aircraft accident investigation, airport and air traffic control modernization projects. He became known as conference moderator, speaker, lecturer, arranger of conferences and air navigation exhibition sectors, journalist, author of international studies on aeronautical information,  elaborator of documentations, training programmes for foreign countries, the elaboration of national ATC operations manuals and advisor on EU Single European Sky certification for ATS and CNS providers. One of his main interests was the handling of aeronautical information and data in air navigation operations. He belongs to the group of EU accredited ATM experts and joined the International Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI) as a full member in 2012. As founder of ANSA in 1967, comprised of air navigation experts from 21 countries, he still acts as its president. As a holder of a USA AFCS area control licence he joined the US Air Force Communicators & Air Traffic Controllers Association.