BYTRON was founded in 1984 by the late Richard Harris, a long-haul pilot and his wife Irene. In that same year, the IBM PC came to the market and 2 years later the more affordable PC clone gave impetus to BYTRON’s first software - a strip printing program. The application caught the attention of NATS – the UK Air Traffic Service Provider. Successful trials led to this programme became upgraded to a fully fledged Flight Data Management System (FDMS) in 1989. Upgraded and enhanced in line with technology and operational requirements, this program is still operational for NATS at Aberdeen Airport 20 years later. Ground-breaking in its day, this system set the standard for using industry standard hardware (the PC) and operating system (Unix) in the aviation environment. It was also the first computer based system in the world to successfully promulgate, transmit and receive AFTN messages.

Development flight path.