[364] March 25 Open House Will Show Off MTSU Aerospace Department's Air Traffic Control Facility to Community

Release date: March 21, 2011

News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
Aerospace contact: Dr. Wayne Dornan, 615-898-2788 or wdornan@mtsu.edu

March 25 Open House Will Show Off MTSU Aerospace
Department’s Air Traffic Control Facility to Community

(MURFREESBORO) — The public is invited to attend the Community Open House for the MTSU Air Traffic Control Training and Research Facility. It will be held Friday, March 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Business and Aerospace Building State Farm Lecture Hall (BAS S102) and BAS S112.
Aerospace Chair Wayne Dornan invites the MTSU campus, Murfreesboro and surrounding Rutherford County community and people across the region to come and view the unique facility that will train MTSU students and, potentially, others.
The Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce will conduct a ribbon-cutting ceremony as part of the activities, said Kelli Beam, director of membership for the chamber.
“We have a one-of-a-kind air traffic control simulator facility that people are going to be so impressed with, ” Dornan said. “You will experience what it’s like to be in an air traffic control tower.
“The system features a seamless, 360-degree fiberglass control tower, the only one of its kind in the world. It rises to nine feet with a diameter of 29 feet. Ten radar suites can simulate both en route and radar approach control environments.”
A pseudopilot positions area rounds out the room.
“All of these components make training so realistic students will feel like they’re controlling live traffic,” Dornan said.
Attendees first will be directed to the State Farm Lecture Hall, where they will hear about the Aerospace Department and the ATC facility’s special features from Dornan. Then people will tour the facility in small groups, learning about the room’s three phases from students and faculty and staff including Gail Zlotky, associate professor of aerospace and coordinator of MTSU’s Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative; Ed Johnson and Bill Stewart; and Adam Gerald, AT-CTI assistant.
Since MTSU Boulevard is closed for construction between Cason-Kennedy Nursing Building and the roundabout at Blue Raider Drive, visitors should try to park between the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building and Ezell Hall on the southeast side of campus.

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Media welcomed.

In Brief

The public is invited to attend the Community Open House for the MTSU Air Traffic Control Training and Research Facility. It will be held Friday, March 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Business and Aerospace Building State Farm Lecture Hall (BAS S102) and BAS S112. Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, attendees can tour and see the most sophisticated air traffic control simulator in the world. Key features are a 360-degree control tower and a 10-suite simulator for both en route and radar approach control environments.


Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree — the only one in Tennessee — as a model program. MTSU recently unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

For MTSU news and information, go online to mtsunews.com.