Matt wrote:

*****
If you know how to solve the problem for 2 aircraft, and you have more
aicraft than that, you can pick any two and solve the problem for those
two aircraft, yielding a wind speed and direction. Then you can pick a
different pair of aircraft and solve the problem again -- you should
get something close to the same answer you got the first time. If you
do this for all the possible pairs of aircraft, you will _probably_ end
up with a range of answers that are somewhat grouped around a middle
point. This does result in a lot of calculations - 380 pairs for 20
aircraft or 9900 pairs for 100 aircraft - but this is the kind of thing
computers are good at.
*****

Exactly how I hope this plays out.

*****
When you are picking pairs of airplanes, it may be helpful (in terms of
coming up with meaningful numbers) to pick ones that are sort of close
to the same altitude.
*****

I didn't specify in my original post because I didn't expect the
question to be raised, but we will be using aircraft within a 2000 foot
window. At the higher altitudes, that rarely involves a difference of
more than a few degrees and maybe six knots of wind.

*****
1) The folks there saw the magic words "air traffic control" in your
post and figured that if they helped you with it, they'd probably get
sued any time a plane crashes for the next 50 years.
*****

I hadn't considered that. Hell, even *I* don't trust the FAA. :-)

*****
2) The folks there saw the magic words "air traffic control" in your
post and figured out that you really do work for the FAA and therefore
have unlimited amounts of money and should give them a grant to study
this problem, rather than them answering for free on Usenet.
*****

I wish I could offer someone money. This whole system was designed by
a controller who realized the data was just sitting there and decided
to make something useful with it. Now, it's being deployed nationwide.
If the FAA really gets involved, this will be a useless program. Never
fails.

I really have no involvement in this. He briefed me on his work and I
told him I thought I could produce a formula for the wind. We'll see.
I may have bitten off too much. :-)

*****
The halls of academentia. Go down to UMKC, find the math department,
and see if one of the professors can help you. They might also refer
you to a grad student who is good at turning food into solved math
problems. One minor problem with this is timing - they may have
all bugged out for the holidays.
*****

This was my original thought. We even have an aerospace engineering
program nearby (University of Kansas) where I could probably shame
someone into a solution. "The guys in the math department said you
couldn't handle the trigonometry."

I really like the open discussion of Usenet and would love to make this
solution an eternal part of rec.aviation. If that doesn't happen, I'll
bribe some grad students...

*****
NWS/NOAA. They might have solved this problem themselves at some point
and might be able to give you some code. My first two guesses at where
to try would either be the regular office in Pleasant Hill, MO, or the
Severe Storms Lab in Norman, OK.
*****

Now there's an idea I will consider. We even have meteorologists on
staff who could probably grease some wheels there.

Thanks for the discussion!

Chad Speer
PP-ASEL, IA
ATCS, Kansas City ARTCC