Photo: Airbus
As humanity's need to travel to faraway places increases, so does the number of flights required to fulfill these needs. As per aviation industry forecasts, the current fleet of jet aircraft (estimates put the number of such airplanes currently in operation at around 30,000) will have to double in size over the next two decades to keep up with demand. And that will put a lot of strain on pilots, airport operators, and everything in between.
To the untrained eye no one seems to be looking at how to deal with increased air traffic, overcrowded airports, and a congested airspace. But the reality is industry players are already on it, and among them is European Aerospace giant with a program called Optimate.
Optimate is an effort meant to come up with solutions to reduce pilot workload, deploy automated systems for trajectory protection, and digital tools to ease the collaboration between pilots and air traffic control. In a nutshell, that translates into more automation.
The Europeans have built a so-called autonomy demonstrator to show the world some of the technologies it is working on. The demonstrator is, in fact, a collection of tools that once deployed, should allow an Airbus commercial airliner to perform a "highly efficient automatic gate-to-gate mission."
Airbus and its research offshoot UpNext are discussing tools that include 4D trajectory flight management, a tablet-operated connected virtual assistant, and overridable protections. These are to be used from right when the aircraft is taxiing prior to takeoff, in flight, and when landing and rolling to the gate.
The Optimate program is only in its infancy, and it's expected to last for a period of three years. Airbus decided to start its research with the tech that will be used to perform runway-to-gate taxiing, a maneuver that already is pretty complicated and will become even more so when there will be more airplanes on the tarmac.
For the task of testing new automated ground taxiing tech, Airbus is not using an airplane that moves from place to place on the runway, but a heavily modified… van.
Airbus calls the vehicle, an EV of undisclosed make, a cockpit on wheels, and that's because it features a virtual flight deck that is the same as pilots get in an A350. The cockpit is backed by computer vision, geo-locating sensors, 4D radar and lidar, allowing the van to move around the runway on its own. In the back there is a full flight hardware installation used by engineers to keep an eye on the tests.
This flying truck, as Airbus engineers call it, has already been tested for thousands of hours at the UpNext headquarters near Toulouse, France, and at the Blagnac airport. Although no specific details are provided, it appears the tests went well, as there are now plans to deploy the vehicle on a more crowded, international airport.
Once that is out of the way Airbus will fit an A350-1000 with the required gear and have it perform automated taxi operations. This is supposed to happen by the end of the year, when a prototype version of new automation functions will be unveiled.
Optimate is an effort meant to come up with solutions to reduce pilot workload, deploy automated systems for trajectory protection, and digital tools to ease the collaboration between pilots and air traffic control. In a nutshell, that translates into more automation.
The Europeans have built a so-called autonomy demonstrator to show the world some of the technologies it is working on. The demonstrator is, in fact, a collection of tools that once deployed, should allow an Airbus commercial airliner to perform a "highly efficient automatic gate-to-gate mission."
Airbus and its research offshoot UpNext are discussing tools that include 4D trajectory flight management, a tablet-operated connected virtual assistant, and overridable protections. These are to be used from right when the aircraft is taxiing prior to takeoff, in flight, and when landing and rolling to the gate.
The Optimate program is only in its infancy, and it's expected to last for a period of three years. Airbus decided to start its research with the tech that will be used to perform runway-to-gate taxiing, a maneuver that already is pretty complicated and will become even more so when there will be more airplanes on the tarmac.
For the task of testing new automated ground taxiing tech, Airbus is not using an airplane that moves from place to place on the runway, but a heavily modified… van.
Airbus calls the vehicle, an EV of undisclosed make, a cockpit on wheels, and that's because it features a virtual flight deck that is the same as pilots get in an A350. The cockpit is backed by computer vision, geo-locating sensors, 4D radar and lidar, allowing the van to move around the runway on its own. In the back there is a full flight hardware installation used by engineers to keep an eye on the tests.
This flying truck, as Airbus engineers call it, has already been tested for thousands of hours at the UpNext headquarters near Toulouse, France, and at the Blagnac airport. Although no specific details are provided, it appears the tests went well, as there are now plans to deploy the vehicle on a more crowded, international airport.
Once that is out of the way Airbus will fit an A350-1000 with the required gear and have it perform automated taxi operations. This is supposed to happen by the end of the year, when a prototype version of new automation functions will be unveiled.
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