Air traffic controllers would one day guide planes to take off and land by watching them on remote video from airports that don't have their own control towers if an experiment at an airport in suburban Virginia works out.

Saab Sensis Corp., under the watchful eye of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, is testing a system of high-definition cameras that relay video to controllers who can't see the planes themselves.

Eventually, that could mean positioning less-expensive camera towers at airports rather than building traditional brick-and-mortar towers. For example, controllers in Leesburg could control flights at seven smaller airports in Virginia all by video feed, officials said.

“It really is just technology to start,” Mike Gerry, CEO of Saab's division overseeing air-traffic management, said Monday in unveiling the project. “Technology doesn’t solve air-traffic control problems. A big piece of it involves interaction with air-traffic controllers.”

Leesburg Executive Airport has 14 high-definition cameras from Saab mounted in a crow's nest that feed video to 55-inch television screens in a windowless room at the airport. The screens replicate the 360-degree view from a standard tower. Compressed air blows rain or bugs off the glass to keep the view clear. Two microphones pipe in the sound of jet engines revving.

For now, controllers are just monitoring flights by video in an experiment to gather information for Saab, the FAA and NATCA, the controllers' union. If the experiment is successful, Saab officials hope controllers will begin directing flights at Leesburg in spring 2016 by video.

If proved reliable enough for the FAA to certify, Saab spokesman John Belanger said more than 100 airports nationwide could get this remote-control technology.

“The air-traffic controllers are very proud to be part of this cutting edge technology,” said Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

The experiment could become the second remote-controlled tower in the world.

Saab began the first in Ornskoldsvik Airport in northern Sweden. In April, after a year-and-a-half of testing, controllers 90 miles away guide the dozen planes that land there daily by using video cameras. Saab is also starting the evaluation of a remote tower in Alice Springs, Australia, which would be controlled from Adelaide nearly 1,000 miles away. Norway is also studying the equipment, with an eye toward connecting two airports in the northern part of that country.

In Colorado, the FAA announced this month it chose Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport for an experiment with the state Department of Transportation to use cameras and sensors monitored remotely to guide planes starting next year. Allegiant Air stopped flying to the airport in 2012 in part because of the lack of controllers. The Colorado Aviation Fund is paying $5.9 million for the first test phase.

A big reason to attempt the change is because of cost of covering six full-time controllers at the smallest airports. During a budget crunch in 2013, the FAA proposed closing the 149 towers at airports nationwide with fewer than 10,000 takeoffs and landings each week – until Congress found funding in another part of the budget.

Leesburg doesn't have a standard tower with controllers guiding planes by monitoring radar and looking out the window. But the airport is relatively busy for a small airport, with 100,000 takeoffs and landings each year. Planes in the air are guided by regional FAA controllers, while pilots must talk with each other to agree on the order they will take off and land.

The potential advantage of adding controllers – even if they're only watching by video  –  is that they can direct planes to take off and land faster than pilots communicating with each other by radio. The goal is to reduce flight delays while keeping planes safely apart.

Randy Burdette, director of the Virginia department of aviation, said during busy times, pilots sometimes wait 20 minutes on the tarmac to take off. But controllers working from the video feed could reduce those waits while also making the system safer, he said. He said flights at seven small airports in Virginia could be guided by remote feed from Leesburg.

“This is a good proving ground – we’re in the back yard of the FAA,” Burdette said.

Since Aug. 3, the air-traffic controllers union has provided pairs of controllers – one for planes on the ground and one for those in the air – to experiment at Leesburg with Saab's system.

“It does a great deal to enhance safety,” said Jerry McDaniel, a retired controller who is a consultant for Saab who oversees the controllers at Leesburg.

Rinaldi, himself a longtime controller at Dulles, which is about 5 miles away from the Leesburg airport as the crow flies, said the technology must be proved and enhanced, but it could spread to other airports. For example, Chicago’s O’Hare airport is so busy it has two towers, but he said the midnight shift could potentially be consolidated at a single tower if the airport had more cameras for controllers to watch spaces where they might otherwise have a blind spot.

“I think this technology gives us the ability to expand air-traffic control and enhance the safety of the system,” Rinaldi said.

THE BASICS OF THE NEW SYSTEM

1. An airport crow’s nest tower houses high-definition video cameras and stereo microphones that encompass the entire airfield. Feeds from the tower are sent to a remote tower center off the grounds of the airport.

2. Camera feeds are displayed on a series of television screens designed to replicate the 360-degree view from a standard tower. Controllers use radar, weather systems and other equipment used in a control room.

3. Ultimately, controllers monitoring flights will be able to communicate with pilots and direct traffic without ever being at the airport.（Bart Jansen）