Want to be an air traffic controller? Buy the iPhone game

I’m sure like most of you, I’ve been waiting for the day when I could declare myself an official expert on some subject or the other because I’d recently played a video game. In my youthful mind’s eye, decades ago, I envisioned such a game as a huge walk-in virtual reality system with wall-sized monitors and fully-emersed game experience.

But as it turns out, you only need a $200 phone and a free app to become an air traffic controller. @NASA has released a new iPhone app (Android version still in development, WTF?) that allows you to manage and alter the trajectory of incoming airplanes in California and Nevada air space. The idea is to demonstrate the need for math skills and patience in dealing with the complex world of air traffic control.

Or, you could just get shit-faced on cheap whiskey, sit in your living room in your undies and intentionally smash planes into one another while listening to Surf Nicaragua at full volume. There does not appear to be anything in the game that prevents this:

NASA – NASA Releases Sector 33 Air Traffic Control Educational Game App.