The Invention of Remote Tower at DLR
The idea of a remote tower was firstly formulated by DLR in 2002 in a brainstorming for blue sky technologies. The idea received an innovation award and in 2005, the world’s first remote-tower prototype was employed by DLR at Braunschweig-Wolfsburg Airport to test the concept’s technical and operational feasibility. Several national and international research and development activities followed and numerous ANSPs, such as the Swedish ANSP LFV and the German ANSP DFS, expressed their interest and collaborated with DLR. In 2014, DLR licensed the technology to the industry and in 2015, the first remote-tower installation went operational in Sweden, providing control of Örnsköldsvik airport from Sundsvall, and in December 2018, the DFS went operational with Saarbrücken Airport, its first remotely controlled airport out of the Remote tower Center in Leipzig.
DLR has played a major role in the development of remote tower since the original idea and the first prototype. Numerous research activities helped the aviation industry to realize the concept in an exceptionally short time period.
DLR coordinated the largest Remote Tower projects in the SESAR 2020 program and is driving standardization within the EUROCAE organization.
Remote Tower Timeline
