Embellishing the Silicone Crutch

Airbus—by dint of an A350-1000 test aircraft and under the auspices of a wholly owned subsidiary dubbed Airbus UpNext—has undertaken testing of new, on ground and in-flight pilot assistance technologies.

Known collectively as DragonFly, subject technologies have been devised for purpose of evaluating the feasibility and pertinence of further exploring autonomous flight systems in support of safer and more efficient aircraft operations. DragonFly comprises automated emergency diversion in cruise, as well as automatic landing and taxi assistance.

Airbus UpNext head of DragonFly demonstrator Isabelle Lacaze stated: “These tests are one of several steps in the methodical research of technologies to further enhance operations and improve safety. Inspired by biomimicry, the systems being tested have been designed to identify features in the landscape that enable an aircraft to ‘see’ and safely maneuver autonomously within its surroundings, in the same way that dragonflies are known to have the ability to recognize landmarks.”

Over the flight-test campaign, DragonFly technologies assisted pilots in managing a simulated incapacitated crew-member event that spanned the sortie’s landing and in-taxiing phases. Successfully taking into account flight-environment factors such as air-space boundaries, terrain, and weather, the aircraft generated a new flight-trajectory plan, and communicated autonomously with both Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the airline Operations Control Center.

Testing under real-time conditions at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, Airbus UpNext also evaluated taxi assistance technologies which provided flight-crews audio alerts in reaction to obstacles and assisted with both on-ground guidance to active runway and aircraft groundspeed control.

In addition to the aforementioned capabilities, Airbus UpNext is readying a new generation of computer vision-based algorithms by which to advance the quality and extent of air-crew landing and taxi assistance.

DragonFly was funded in part by the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) as part of the French Stimulus plan, which is part of the European Plan, Next Generation EU, and the France 2030 plan. Testing of DragonFly was made possible by cooperation with Airbus subsidiaries and external partners including Cobham, Collins Aerospace, Honeywell, the Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA), and Thales.

FMI: www.airbus.com