With the return of British civil aviation to normal operating conditions after the war it was found that several problems which had previously given little cause for concern had become acute. More especially, the increase in the volume of traffic, particularly under instrument flying conditions, together with certain indirect consequences of the greater sizes and weights of aircraft, had brought about greatly increased congestion around major airports, and there was, therefore, an urgent requirement for an effective system of close air traffic control to ensure the safety and rapid movement of the traffic.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation immediately gave much attention to this problem of air traffic control, but at once found itself in serious difficulties on account of lack of sufficiently precise knowledge of the traffic and the traffic pattern. The then Controller of Technical and. Operational Services, Sir Conrad Collier, realised that the obtaining of the necessary data concerning air traffic control and other matters of technical interest was essentially a matter of operational research, and in 1947 a small operational research section was established which began work in the autumn of that year.