Obituaries - Dec. 15, 1999

Raymond Hilton; Air Traffic Control Expert

Raymond J. Hilton, 65, who helped usher in the computer and satellite age of air traffic control. A native of Pittsburgh, Hilton attended what is now Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers before serving as an air traffic controller in the Air Force. He began his civilian career as an air traffic controller in Pittsburgh and then worked as a researcher for the Federal Aviation Administration from 1957 to 1981. Hilton was part of a team at the FAA experimental research center in Atlantic City, N.J., that created the early computer hardware and software for air traffic radar systems in the early 1960s. After retiring from the FAA, Hilton joined the Air Transport Assn., where he represented airlines in air traffic control issues and was involved in the development of flight patterns for transoceanic travel. On Thursday in Silver Spring, Md., of lung cancer.