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At a recent Convention held at the Royal Aeronautical Society, the topics of Current Problems and Future Concepts relating to Air Traffic Management were given extensive treatment by speakers from a variety of backgrounds. In his paper on ‘NATS — Taking Stock’, Air Commodore Huxley described the historical basis of the National Air Traffic Services and mentioned its formation some 20 years ago. At that time, the prospect was for a much more complicated mixture of civil and military aviation and an integrated solution had to be found. The three arbitrary areas of military, commercial and recreational flying each have to maintain their major fields of common interest and at the same time, avoid possible mutual conflicts. Thus, for example, reliable public transport aircraft require a close working relationship between the operator and the ATC system, whereas in military flying, the emphasis is on self‐reliance. Over the 20 years referred to, there has been a three‐fold increase in the volume of en‐route traffic and the altitude has been doubled at which most of it wishes to fly. In the future, the prospect of reducing separation is not considered very probable and among other possibilities, tighter control of low‐level flying is considered probable.

NOT perhaps the most vintage of Farnboroughs from the point of view of new aircraft and new technology, but undoubtedly one of the most successful in relation to the business done. Some fifteen major orders worth over £32½ million were announced, bringing the total order book for the industry this year to more than £782 million already. This exceeds by a handsome margin the new business won by the industry in any nine‐month period in the past, and it is expected that by the end of the year orders worth well over £800 million will have been received. Highlights of the new British hardware on show were the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod and production Harriers on the military side; the B.A.C. One‐Eleven 500, the Handley Page Jetstream, the Garrett‐engined Short Skyvan, and the Beagle Pups showed the resurgence of the industry's civil interests. The number of foreign aircraft that appeared, sponsored in the main by Rolls‐Royce, bore witness to the strength of Britain's aero engine and aircraft equipment industry, and further evidence of this was found in the exhibition proper with many examples of major items of equipment having been adopted for overseas markets. The overall impression at Farnborough was a new‐found confidence in the future of the industry exemplified by a more aggressive and effective export sales policy that has already proved our ability to deliver the goods. It is not possible to cover all the exhibits shown at Farnborough, but the report following describes many of the interesting items.

JUST as no new commercial aircraft is allowed to carry fare‐paying passenger on its first flight, no significant change to air traffic control (ATC) services is approved for operation until it has undergone a proper programme of development and test. The Air Traffic Control Evaluation Unit (ATCEU) is located at Bournemouth International Airport and is part of the National Air Traffic Services (NATS). Ever since 1947 it has been actively engaged in helping to ensure that, when new ATC equipments, procedures and systems are introduced to operational service, they will meet the rigorous requirements of a safety‐conscious aviation industry.

Real-time simulation trials involving operational air traffic controllers are an essential stage in the validation of new ideas and computer assistance tools for air traffic control. This paper describes the business and technical background to such trials and then highlights two statistical issues which continue to complicate the design and reporting of trials:

Reconciling objective, subjective, quantitative and qualitative data: striking the right balance between controlled measurement and expert opinion;

Correlation and independence in sequences of data: designing cost-effective trials without over-sampling.

The purpose of this paper is to consider a challenge to an occupational jurisdiction in the British police. Historically, street cops have defended the importance of operational credibility as a way of sustaining the value of experience, and inhibiting attempts to introduce external leaders. This has generated a particular form of policing and leadership that is deemed by the British Government as inadequate to face the problems of the next decade.

The project used the High Potential Development Scheme of the British police to assess the value of operational credibility and the possibilities of radical cultural change. Data are drawn from participants on the program, from those who failed to get onto the program, and from officers who have risen through the ranks without access to a fast-track scheme.

Most organizational changes fail in their own terms, often because of cultural resistance. However, if we change our metaphors of culture from natural to human constructions it may be possible to focus on the key point of the culture: the lodestone that glues it together. Operational credibility may be such a cultural lodestone and undermining it offers the opportunity for rapid and radical change.

The scheme itself has had limited numbers and the research was limited to a small proportion of the different categories outlined above.

If we change our metaphors for culture and cultural change – from natural to constructed metaphors – (icebergs and webs to buildings), it may be possible to consider a much more radical approach to organizational change.

Most assessments of cultural change focus on those charged with enacting the change and explain failure through recourse to natural metaphors of change. This paper challenges the convention that cultural change can only ever be achieved, if at all, through years of effort.