She says the programme is intended not only to offer diversion assistance but to support crews in taxiing at congested airports, through computer-vision obstacle detection, to maintain speed control and centreline tracking, as well as alerting pilots to the risk of runway crossing. “It was not an easy walk in the park,” she says. Lacaze says the DragonFly demonstration team has had to “fine tune” the implementation through a step-by-step process, gradually integrating different aspects, to ensure that safety was preserved as the aircraft took control. The criteria for detecting incapacitation are “sensitive”, says Lacaze, and she does not elaborate on the techniques involved, but says that the system is designed to take over “seconds” after detection. Our framework – to mature, to explore, see what we can do with the new technology – is really focusing on… assistance for dual-pilot operations, meaning the current crew composition.”īut DragonFly does envision support for extreme circumstances in which pilots are no longer able to control the aircraft. “We are in exploratory field of research.
“We consider there is already huge value ,” she says. She states that the diversion function can activate automatically or act as a support to the pilots.Ĭameras mounted on the A350’s nose are part of the sensor array to gather external situation dataĪddressing the possibility of incapacitation remains one of the contentious issues when considering a possible shift towards single-pilot operations.īut Lacaze insists that DragonFly is intended to develop and evaluate assistance to a two-pilot crew, to help manage workload during intensive phases of flight, such as diversion – with cases of incapacitation or medical emergency among the possible causes. “It was really amazing to see that all our stakeholders in this scenario were really positive about the feasibility and the acceptability of the solution.” “The system took over and diverted the safely to the nearest appropriate airport – Toulouse in that scenario,” says Lacaze. The aircraft relies on automatic intelligent decision-making based on flight data obtained through a combination of sensors, including cameras on the A350’s nose, and backed up by vision algorithms and guidance calculations.ĭragonFly head of demonstrator Isabelle Lacaze says the programme has been running for two years, but flight-testing using aircraft MSN59 commenced in July 2022 and the airframer is “enthusiastic about the first promising results” obtained towards the end of last year.Īmong the achievements, she says, was the simulation of sudden pilot incapacitation over Limoges during a flight to Lyon, in a real air traffic environment. Part of the airframer’s UpNext initiative the ‘DragonFly’ programme takes its inspiration from insects of the same name – using biomimicry of dragonflies’ combination of high-speed senses, spanning a wide field of view, feature recognition and precision flight control.ĭragonFly has focused on three particular aspects of autonomous operation – diversion, landing and taxiing – including assistance during a simulated incident of pilot incapacitation. Airline Business special: CEOs to watch in 2021Īirbus has trialled further autonomous flight concepts using an A350-1000 test aircraft, including emergency diversion and automatic landing, but insists they are aimed at supporting a dual-pilot, rather than single-pilot, cockpit.FlightGlobal Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2021.EDGE: A new global force in aerospace and defence.Shell Aviation: What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation?.What does the future of aviation look like in 2022?.Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2022.What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation?.Airline Business Covid-19 recovery tracker.
0 kommentar(er)
