About Flight Progress Strips
A flight progress strip is a narrow band of printed stock: callsign, ICAO type designator, assigned level, departure, destination, and at least one four-figure time. It goes into a coloured plastic boot and the boot goes into a metal bay. Every strip is the same pale paper — the colour is in the holder and in the pen.
That division is the whole system. Blue for departures, orange for arrivals, and a strip pulled proud of the rack means a live conflict. Nothing is decorative; the rack is read at a glance, across a room, by someone already talking on frequency.
- Origin
- Global — FAA, NATS and ICAO-aligned towers and area control centres
- Era
- 1950s–1990s (paper strip bays as standard ATC working memory); FAA form set still in print
- Key figures
- FAA Air Traffic Organization · NATS · EUROCONTROL / SKYbrary
- Movements
- Air traffic control procedure design · Tactile human-factors interfaces · Industrial forms printing
Flight Progress Strips design spec
Colors
Typography
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