Virtual Tower
A stylised look out of the Glasgow Prestwick control tower, with live aircraft, live weather and the kit controllers use. Press What’s this? on any panel to find out what it does, and drag the timeline to see how the tower has changed since 1933.
2026 · Today: live from the cab
Stylised view from the control tower (position from OpenStreetMap; the eye height of about 20 m is an estimate). Runways are drawn from UK AIP threshold data. Elevation is exaggerated; labels are live ADS-B/ground data. Select an aircraft to open its page.
Weather
EGPK 292320Z 12019KT CAVOK 19/15 Q1002
ATM
Strip board
Empty bay
Empty bay
Empty bay
Empty bay
From the site’s ADS-B and ground feed. Not an ATC record.
Radio & landlines
Listening in: under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 s.48 it is an offence to use radio apparatus, without lawful authority, to get information from a message not meant for you, or to disclose it. This page plays no audio.
Ground lighting
Illustrative switches: they light the runway in the view above but don’t reflect the real lighting state.
Signal lamp
- To aircraft in flight
- Cleared to land
- On the ground
- Cleared for take-off
SERA Appendix 1. *Clearances to land and taxi are given in due course. Steady white has no listed meaning.
Crash alarm
ATC alerts the fire service immediately with the fullest information, confirms the aircraft type and passes the surface wind if there’s a fire on the ground.
Today: live from the cab
- NowAir traffic services H24 on runways 12/30 and 02/20, with ILS CAT I on 12 (IPP) and 30 (IKK), in Class D controlled airspace. [UK AIP AD 2 EGPK (AIRAC 2026-09-03)]
- 2026A tender to replace both ILS and the associated DME for RWY 12/30 runs from 8 Jun to 7 Dec 2026. [PCS notice FEB549922 (2026)]
- NowHMS Gannet, which arrived in 1971 (ABCT), is on the airfield. [UK AIP AD 2 EGPK (AIRAC 2026-09-03)]
Digital displays are shown as typical of a modern UK cab; Prestwick’s actual equipment makes are not public. Traffic, weather and runway are live.
Radar and windfarms
Wind turbines show up as clutter on primary radar. A planning report on a windfarm under the RWY 30 approach rated its effect on Prestwick “Major, Significant”: the clutter sits under the approach, affects RWY 12 departures, and vectoring around it adds track miles. [RWE Enoch Hill 2 EIA Ch 8 (Aug 2023)]
- Jan 2015
Tender for a “Windfarm Radar Mitigation System”
Published 9 Jan 2015, deadline 10 Feb 2015 (ref. GPA_AENG_001, value not shown). The airport said it “is surrounded by land subject to significant planning applications for wind farm development”, that turbines would generate clutter on the ATC radar display, and that it “does not have a suitable means of mitigating or removing that clutter”. It wanted a “Regional Solution”: 360° to 20 nm, extending to 40 nm over time. Four lots: a wind-turbine-resilient primary radar; a 20 nm PSR expandable to windfarm tolerance at 40 nm by 2017; a Multi Radar Tracker fusing the mitigated data with the existing S511 PSR, SSR/WAM and future ADS-B; and a new radar display system. [PCS notice JAN196696 (2015)]
- S511
The legacy primary radar
An August 2023 planning report says Prestwick “currently operates a Marconi S511 Hybrid Watchman Model PSR” and has procured a Terma SCANTER 4002 as a potential mitigation, with the S511 continuing until replaced. [RWE Enoch Hill 2 EIA Ch 8 (Aug 2023)] A forum post (unverified) calls it an EN4000, S511 electronics with a Watchman antenna. [PPRuNe forum (unverified)] Its installation date at Prestwick isn’t in the sources we found.
- 2019–21
Terma SCANTER 4002 trials, paid for by developers
In August 2021 the Sunday Post reported a £5m turbine-tolerant “Scanter” radar, funded by windfarm developers, in final operational trials and due to enter service that summer. The same report said the airport had received more than £8m from windfarm firms over four years; ScottishPower Renewables’ lawyers put it at £8.2m, with £6m ring-fenced for radar upgrades, and accused the airport of unlawfully seeking annual payments, which the airport denied. [Sunday Post, 1 Aug 2021 (via wind-watch.org)] An official in-service date wasn’t found.
- Aug–Sep 2023
Ministers rule out ongoing compensation
ScottishPower Renewables’ 18-turbine Clauchrie scheme was refused on 31 Aug 2023. [Energy Consents Unit ECU00002001] In September 2023 ministers agreed with a public inquiry that mitigation costs “should be demonstrably incurred by Prestwick Airport and that there is no basis for ongoing compensatory payments”. The airport’s lawyers warned of “significant technical, operational and financial consequences”. It had received £5m in compensation from 2019 to 2021. [The Scotsman, 1 Oct 2023]
- Aug 2026
Replacement radar cleared
South Ayrshire Council granted a certificate of lawfulness to replace the end-of-life EN4000 primary surveillance radar with a modern equivalent on the same tower, next to the ATC tower and Apron E, as permitted development. Its stated uses: finding non-cooperative traffic, monitoring aircraft whose transponders fail, and watching surface and terminal movements. The make wasn’t named. [Ayr Advertiser, 15 Aug 2026]
How mitigation works
The CAA’s policy on wind turbines, CAP 764 (v7.1, Sept 2026), sets out the options, with detail in CAP 670 SUR 13. [CAA CAP 764 v7.1] [CAA CAP 670]
Suppress radar returns in a sector over the windfarm. On most primary radars there is no height, so a blank is “a column at all altitudes”. Blanks must be small enough for aircraft to cross quickly. Micro-blanking uses high-resolution blanks, at the risk of scattered single-scan losses.
A second radar with a clear view over the windfarm supplies data “stitched” into the main picture. If it fails, “the in-filled areas become simple blanks”. Glasgow Airport uses dual Terma SCANTER 4002 infill radars for Kype Muir windfarm.
Can provide information above windfarm-affected areas.
High-PRF/Doppler processing and spectrum filters tell turbines from aircraft by their Doppler signatures.
A radar like the Terma SCANTER 4002 maps turbine positions and suppresses their tracks while still tracking aircraft (Pager Power lists 6 m range cells and 1000+ tracks).
A TMZ removes the need for primary radar in an area, but needs an airspace change under CAP 1616. In controlled airspace, SSR-only service is allowed for the minimum time after a temporary PSR failure.
Aveillant’s Theia 16A staring-array radar was deployed at East Midlands Airport in 2015 for the Spondon windfarm and received CAA operational approval.
Ownership and figures are as reported in the sources cited (the 2015 notice describes the airport as owned and operated by the Scottish Government). Sources that couldn’t be fully checked are marked unverified.
Credits & sources
- Wartime control tower and admin buildings, Prestwick, 1944. Photo: Royal Air Force official photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Controller using binoculars from the tower, Prestwick, 1944. Photo: Royal Air Force official photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- RAF controllers in the tower, with an American visitor, Prestwick, 1944. Photo: Royal Air Force official photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- A flying controller using an Aldis lamp from a tower at Imphal, 1941–45 (not Prestwick). Photo: Dowd, Royal Air Force official photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- The control tower at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, 6 Sep 2014. Photo: Walter Baxter, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Prestwick Airport tower, 2 Sep 2016. Photo: Ian Rainey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Paper flight progress strips, Almería tower, 2023 (not Prestwick). Photo: MdeVicente, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Main references: UK AIP AD 2 EGPK (AIRAC 2026-09-03) · CAA CAP 493 MATS Pt 1 · CAA CAP 168 · CAA CAP 746 · CAA CAP 670 · CAA CAP 764 v7.1 · SERA Appendix 1 (UK Reg 923/2012) · Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 s.48 · ABCT: Prestwick · atchistory: Prestwick Airport. Aircraft positions are from the site’s ADS-B feed; weather is the latest EGPK METAR.
This is an illustrative educational page, not an operational display. It is not affiliated with Glasgow Prestwick Airport or NATS. Where Prestwick-specific details weren’t published, panels show typical UK practice and say so.