Photos: Software clears flights for takeoff

CNET News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman stopped at the Orlando, Fla., headquarters of Adacel as part of Road Trip 2008. Adacel is an Australian company that relocated to Orlando and uses its headquarters there to develop software primarily aimed at the air traffic control industry.

The company produces several software packages, including one designed to let the Federal Aviation Administration control aircraft in-flight with non-radar-based systems that use satellite and data links to talk to aircraft. Another product line is designed to help train air traffic control operators to be more efficient.

Here, two Adacel employees demonstrate MaxSim, the software and hardware package that is used to train ATC operators. On the screens is a digital representation of the Orlando International Airport and all the planes on the ground there and about to land.