A brief history of Air Traffic Control and on-line Aircraft Tracking Systems...

Today's loss of flight MH370 got me wꜵndering the internet briefly investigating how Aircraft Tracking/Control systems have changed over the years.

• 1958 - Semi-Automatic Ground Environment - The prototype was an IBM 4020 Military Computer
  "SAGE—Air Force project 416L—became the pattern for at least twenty-five other major military command-control systems… These were the so-called “Big L” systems [and] included 425L, the NORAD system; 438L, the Air Force Intelligence Data Handling System; and 474L, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). … Project 465L, the SAC Control System (SACCS) [with] over a million lines, reached four times the size of the SAGE code and consumed 1,400 man-years of programming; SDC invented a major computer language, JOVIAL, specifically for this project." 
• http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/IBM-SAGE-computer.htm
• 1958 - Algol58/JOVIAL created.
• 1961- AN/FSQ-31V ‎ - SAGE Solid State Computer was a planned military computer central for deployment to Super Combat Centers in nuclear bunkers
• 1968 - ALGOL 68 Final Report^r0 Presented at Munich Meeting

• 1980 - re: 1968 ... The best we could do was to send with it a minority report, stating our considered view that, "... as a tool for the reliable creation of sophisticated programs, the language [ALGOL 68] was a failure." [...] - C. A. R. Hoare  Oct 1980

• 2002 - Air Traffic Control dependent on 1970s software until 2011
  "The IBM mainframe-based Flight Data Processing System (FDPS) based at West Drayton, near Heathrow, crashed twice in 2002, causing major disruption to air traffic and delays for thousands of passengers."
• 2004 - Failed air traffic control system dates back to 70s
• 2007 - DDC-I Announces Industry's First Quick-Turn, Low-Cost JOVIAL-to-C Conversion Service
• 2011 - The futurist: The US’ new air traffic control system
• 2011 - FAA Remains Quiet on Eram Budget Overruns, Delay
• 2013 - How UK air traffic control system was caught asleep on the job
• 2012-2025 "Next Generation Air Transportation System"
• ... estimates that by 2018, NextGen will reduce aviation fuel consumption by 1.4 billion gallons, reduce emissions by 14 million tons and save $23 billion in costs.^[5] Each mile in the air costs an airline about $0.10-$0.15 per seat in operating expenses like flight crew and fuel.^[6] 

¢ My commentary: Algol68 should have been adopted and replaced Algol60, but [IMHO] instead Algol68 was shot down by a vocal minority.  Sure, I would love to own and drive a 1961 E-type Jaguar, but it would be better with airbags and a GPS.  So the 1968 Security, Efficiency, Type-safety, Standardization and Internationalization offered by Algol68 (which predates C11 well by over 40 years!) should have been leveraged in 1968! Algol68 is kind of like a 1961 E-type Jaguar, but with seat-belts, air-bags, a roll-bar, traction-control and modern tyres! ¢

BTW:  As a wonderful example of today's "crowd-sourcing": Do you regularly have aircraft pass (or cross paths) over your home/community? but you live in the "middle-of-every-where"... How about becoming part of "flight-aware" and to help track aircraft?  If your location is "desirable", then you may get a free [ADS-B] to put on your roof... Here is the current coverage map: http://flightaware.com/adsb/coverage.

Click MH370 for an example of this flightaware's tracking of MH370.

Update: My best guess as to where MH370 is... On a "great circle" west of Kuda Huvadhoo (in the Maldives).