b'70 BVU OPERATIONSairport and airfield at various times of day toA 3D airfield model and mock cabPHOTO: KIMLEY-HORNaccount for various sun glare angles.helped controllers evaluate potential That imagery, refined during 2021 andsites for a tower.2022, gave the project team a great basis for the 3-D model, Hildebrandt notes. The 3D modeled images rendered from the drone photography enabled controllers to see views from many potential positions at BVU and at varying heights, times of day and in different sunlight conditions. They also provided simulated nighttime views and in wide-ranging weather. That capability gave technicians a lot of power and control to look at things under different conditions to see what would be optimal, Hildebrandt explains. The resulting 3-D imagery was then used to build a 3-D model of the entire airport.weather, height, rotation of the cab, andenvironment as possible for controllers to A mock air traffic control tower cab wassimulated air traffic. Those things, as wellevaluate each site. The data was fed into a created that included 360-degree views ofas workstations and static control displaysMeta Quest 2 VR headset, through which the airfield from the survey sites. The 3-Dsimilarly found in control tower cabs, werecontrollers could virtually walk around the model included controls for time of day,all incorporated to create as realistic ansimulated tower cab and view the airfield. March | April 2024AirportImprovement.com'