John van Hoogstraten, Managing Director of Straten Consulting Services Limited (Straten CSL), has officially released his second aviation book, From Control to Cognition, a thought-provoking exploration of the evolution and future of air traffic control and air traffic management.
The new publication examines one of the world’s most complex — yet least understood — professions, tracing the development of air traffic control from its earliest procedural origins through to the emerging age of artificial intelligence, automation, and machine-assisted decision-making.
Drawing on more than 35 years of operational and international aviation experience, John van Hoogstraten combines personal stories, industry insight, aviation history, and future-focused analysis to provide readers with a rare behind-the-scenes perspective of the systems and people responsible for organising the modern sky.
Beginning with his unexpected entry into air traffic control in South Africa during the late 1980s, the book charts the transformation of the profession across multiple generations of aviation development — from handwritten flight strips and procedural control to radar surveillance, digital airspace systems, advanced flow management, and the growing role of artificial intelligence.
The book explores a wide range of themes including:
- The psychology and pressures of controlling aircraft
- Life inside radar rooms and control towers
- The rise of global Air Traffic Management systems
- Concorde and the evolution of high-capacity aviation
- Flow management, automation, and performance-driven operations
- The emergence of drones and autonomous aviation
- Global staffing shortages impacting air traffic control
- The future role of humans within increasingly intelligent airspace systems
Speaking about the release, John van Hoogstraten said:
“This book is both a tribute to the generations of controllers, engineers, pilots, and aviation professionals who built modern aviation, and an exploration of the challenges we now face as technology increasingly reshapes the operational environment. Air traffic control has always been about humans making complex decisions under pressure — the question now is how that changes when machines begin making some of those decisions for us.”
From Control to Cognition follows the success of John van Hoogstraten’s first aviation book and continues his focus on challenging conventional thinking within the Air Traffic Management sector.
The release comes at a time of significant transformation within global aviation, with increasing industry focus on automation, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, trajectory-based operations, and the long-term sustainability of the air traffic control workforce.
Part memoir, part aviation history, and part future-facing analysis, the book offers accessible insight for aviation professionals, students, industry leaders, and anyone interested in how humanity learned to manage the skies.
From Control to Cognition is now available via Amazon UK.