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Archer’s Demonstrator Aircraft Achieves Full Transition Flight

On Tuesday, Nov. 29, Archer completed Maker’s first full transition flight after several months of intensive flight testing. (Photo: Archer Aviation)

Maker, the demonstrator aircraft developed by Archer Aviation, made its first successful transition from vertical lift to full wing-borne flight last week. Maker is a full-scale electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft with 12 propellers attached to six booms on a fixed wing. The demonstrator aircraft flew at a speed of 105 miles per hour (91 knots).

View the video of Maker’s transition flight here >>

Archer’s Maker aircraft utilizes a 12-tilt-6 configuration, as does its production eVTOL aircraft, Midnight. The 12-tilt-6 configuration means that the vehicles feature six propellers that are tilted forward in cruise position in order to provide propulsion during forward flight. All 12 of the aircraft’s propellers generate vertical lift during take-off and landing.

The team officially unveiled the Midnight aircraft in mid-November. Archer also revealed plans to build a manufacturing facility in Georgia near the Covington Municipal Airport. The facility is expected to start production in 2024 and be able to produce up to 650 eVTOLs each year.

Archer’s production aircraft, Midnight (Photo: Archer Aviation)

In November, Archer also announced suppliers for Midnight’s flight deck and battery cells. Garmin has agreed to supply the G3000 integrated flight deck, and Molicel signed a memorandum of understanding to produce battery cells to power the eVTOL.

Another leading eVTOL developer, Lilium, achieved a full transition from hover to wing-borne flight with its technology demonstrator in September. Its Phoenix 2 aircraft performed the full transition on the main wings as well as the canard wings. Lilium has been conducting flight tests with the Phoenix 2 in Spain since this spring. The team achieved its first main wing transition flight in June.

Archer expects to certify its aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration in late 2024. “The data and experience we’ve gathered from Maker’s rigorous flight testing program has been invaluable to the development and certification path of Midnight,” remarked Adam Goldstein, Archer’s founder and CEO, regarding Maker’s successful transition flight.

“During this flight, Maker’s tilt propellers were locked in cruise position for the first time and the aircraft flew at a calibrated airspeed of 91 knots.” (Photo: Archer Aviation)

Dr. Geoff Bower, Archer’s Chief Engineer, also shared in a blog post that achieving transition is a significant milestone for any aircraft that performs vertical take-off and landing. “The power required to fly Maker during wingborne flight is about three times smaller than during hover. Flying the majority of a trip in wingborne flight is critical to maximizing aircraft efficiency; in other words, carrying a payload at a high speed for a useful range,” wrote Dr. Bower.

Pictured above is an OVERFLOW CFD simulation showing the aerodynamic interactions between propellers and airframe during a transition. “The transition between hover and wingborne flight is traditionally also the most difficult to fly due to the rapidly changing aircraft configuration, hard to predict aerodynamic interaction effects, changing flight dynamics, and the associated control law changes.” – Chief Engineer Dr. Geoff Bower (Photo: Archer Aviation)

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Consortium of Manufacturers Unite to Find Cleaner Aviation Technologies

MTU Aero Engines is coordinating a newly formed consortium of aerospace technology companies to develop hybrid-electric and water-enhanced turbofan technology. The consortium includes Pratt & Whitney, Collins Aerospace, GKN Aerospace, Airbus, the University of Stuttgart, and others. (Photo: MTU Aero Engines)

Various aerospace technology companies have come together in a collaborative partnership to develop water-enhanced and hybrid-electric propulsion systems for aircraft. The partnership, coordinated by MTU Aero Engines AG (MTU), is supported by the European Union Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (Clean Aviation) and includes partners like Collins Aerospace (Collins), University of Stuttgart, Pratt & Whitney, GKN Aerospace, and Airbus. The goal of this consortium is to reduce CO2 emissions from aircraft by up to 25%.

The collaboration between leading aerospace companies is needed for the aviation industry to become more sustainable, especially as pressure from both regulators and the public over aircraft emissions intensifies. As Geoff Hunt, Pratt & Whitney’s Senior Vice President of Engineering and Technology, explained, “Given the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of aviation, cross-industry collaboration and public-private partnerships like Clean Aviation will play a vital role in delivering the technology breakthroughs needed to make net zero emissions aviation a reality.”

The group’s main focus is to use its combined knowledge, technology, and resources to support its Sustainable Water-Injecting Turbofan Comprising Hybrid-Electrics (SWITCH) project. It plans to use two innovative technologies—water-enhanced turbofans (WETs) and hybrid-electric propulsion—to reduce the carbon footprint of aircraft. A WET creates more efficient travel by recovering water vapor released from exhaust and inserting it back into the combustion chamber. The consortium plans to combine WET with a Pratt & Whitney GTF power plant equipped with electric motors designed to improve efficiency during all stages of the flight, especially taxiing.

Researching and developing more efficient propulsion systems is key to improving the sustainability of air travel. As Sabine Klauke, Chief Technology Officer at Airbus, explained, “New propulsion technologies will play an important role in achieving aviation’s net-zero goals, along with new aircraft designs and sustainable energy sources.” The consortium of aerospace companies considered the value of these sustainable energy sources, as any technologies created by SWITCH will be compatible with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Each member of the consortium brings its assets and expertise to support the SWITCH project. Airbus has valuable insights in integrating these new technologies to current aircraft. Specifically, the aircraft manufacturer will assist in the evaluation of both aircraft designs and energy management systems. Meanwhile, Collins will supply the SWITCH program with power electronics, electric motor generators, DC distribution, and architectures for engine nacelles. Engine structures that can support the new technology, such as heat exchangers, will be provided by GKN Aerospace.

The consortium working on the SWITCH project is not the first program Clean Aviation has supported in recent times. As a public-private partnership partially supported by the European Union, it has backed several innovations aimed toward the improvement of air travel. Most recently, Clean Sky 2, a program of Clean Aviation, saw a successful maiden flight of its C295 Test Bed. This aircraft was given modifications aimed at reducing emissions and noise levels and is demonstrating promising new technologies.

Supported by powerful and successful aerospace companies, the SWITCH program is yet another project that aims to harness technology to create a cleaner future for the aviation industry. Receiving funding through 2025, the SWITCH team hopes to see positive results from the testing of its technology and the further application of its innovations to current aircraft.

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Lockheed Martin and Intel Demonstrate 5G Capabilities For Military Aircraft Use

Advanced 5G.MIL connectivity, powered by Intel, drives information dominance for the Department of Defense. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)

As part of its efforts to advance future battlefield connectivity, Lockheed Martin [LMT] in partnership with Intel Corp. [INTC] has successfully conducted a laboratory demonstration of military tactical radios integrated into the company’s fifth-generation wireless military technology, paving the way for flight testing in 2023 of crewed and uncrewed aircraft for distributed teaming.

In the recent demonstration, Intel integrated a 5G Core and Open Radio Access Network into Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL Hybrid Base Station to show over-the-air connectivity that can be transitioned to military aircraft. The technology was hosted on ruggedized computers that can be used in fighter and other aircraft.

“The Integration of 5G and military tactical radios into our Hybrid Base Station enables resilient, link-diverse data routing throughout the battlespace to make future crewed-uncrewed distributed teaming missions possible,” John Clark, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, said in a statement. “The Lockheed Martin 5G.MIL HBS was designed using open mission systems standards so that the technology can on-ramp to multiple and varied platforms quickly in support of our customers’ transformation vision.”

Lockheed Martin said that the flight testing in 2023 will be part of the company’s Project Carrera, an evaluation of 5G distributed crewed and uncrewed military aircraft platforms in support of the Defense Department’s vision of joint all-domain operations.

Project Carrera involves partnering survivable crewed platforms with modular uncrewed assets and incorporating demonstrations of capability upgrades in operational scenarios. The project includes a gradual introduction of the Joint All Domain Operations (JADO) technology stack and experimentation, digital engineering, and human-machine interfaces with autonomous and AI capabilities.

According to the announcement from Lockheed Martin, the company will continue to explore in partnership with Intel “how to best bridge current applications of 5G commercial stacks with military datalinks to bring the most capable, resilient communications solutions to the Department of Defense.”

This article was first published by Defense Daily, a sister publication to Avionics International; it has been edited. View the original version here >>

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Drone Strategy 2.0: The Future of Unmanned Aircraft in Europe

On Nov. 29, the European Commission published Drone Strategy 2.0 to establish the role of unmanned aircraft in commercial operations over the next decade. (Photo: Copyright European Union – Cristof Echard)

On Nov. 29, the European Commission published its Drone Strategy 2.0 to lay the foundation for how unmanned aircraft will be used in the commercial and regulatory sectors. As part of a larger mission to be carbon neutral by 2050, this strategy will help regulate drone usage so it supports a more digitized and sustainable Europe.

The European Commission’s Drone Leaders Group, which consists of General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and other member companies, has looked at how drones should be regulated over the past few years. They published their final report in April, a report which became the basis for the recently released drone strategy.

Within this new drone strategy, the European Commission laid out how drones should be used in cargo and passenger operations. They also outlined performance-based and risk-based regulations as well as the skills development training needed to ensure drones are used properly. The framework is meant to ensure that drones are widely used—and regulated—by 2030.

The report draws from the current U-space regulatory framework and sets out the new Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) framework to regulate local and regional commercial air travel and the new Innovative Aerial Services (IAS) framework. IAS will regulate imaging, surveillance, mapping, and inspecting in European Union states, while IAM will focus more on the use of drones in commercial operations.

“Drones and IAM will become a part of the future urban and regional multimodal intelligent mobility ecosystem and the ground and air infrastructures enabling these transport services will be widely deployed and integrated,” said Kyle Martin, GAMA Vice President of European Affairs, in a recent press release.

The recently released report predicts that the drone sector could be valued at €14.5 billion by 2030 with over 145,000 new jobs created in the European Union over the next decade. Their vision also includes fully autonomous aircraft carriers in the commercial sector by 2030.

While the drones will have a positive impact on the economy, there are some environmental concerns around the increase in drone production. The report laid out production and recycling regulations, with the hope to decrease the environmental footprint when creating new drones and the noise pollution when they are in use.

The Drone 2.0 Strategy is confined within the European Union, but countries around the globe have started to work together to create drone regulations on an international scale. This time last year, regulators from the U.S. and EU gathered to discuss the successful integration of unmanned aircraft into civilian airspace.

When looking to the future of drones, Martin remarked, “GAMA will continue to work closely with the European Commission, EASA and Member States to make the strategy’s vision for 2030 a reality for EU citizens and businesses.”

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Q&A With Chief Operating Officer of UMILES Next

Óscar Lara, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at UMILES Next, discusses the company’s collaboration with TECNALIA and the recent test flights conducted with the Concept Integrity eVTOL prototype. (Photo: UMILES Next)

In late October, the electric air taxi prototype Concept Integrity performed its second successful test flight. The electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft was designed by UMILES Next and was equipped with FlyFree technology that was developed by TECNALIA. The test flight is part of a European demonstration project called USPACE4UAM that supports the integration of manned and unmanned aircraft into the airspace in urban environments.

Concept Integrity’s first flight took place in Toulouse in September. This second test flight was conducted at the ATLAS Test Flight Centre in Spain. Another eVTOL developer, Lilium, has also been performing flight tests at the ATLAS center since April. This fall, Lilium successfully achieved a full transition from hover to wing-borne flight with its Phoenix 2 technology demonstrator.

According to the announcement from Umiles Next, the third site where the team is conducting test flights of the Concept Integrity is Lugo, Spain.

In a written interview with Avionics International this week, Óscar Lara, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Umiles Next, shared some insights into the partnership with Tecnalia and development of the Concept Integrity aircraft.

Óscar Lara, COO of UMILES Next

Avionics: What is USPACE4UAM and how does Umiles Next participate in this project?

Óscar Lara: USPACE4UAM is a European Union project that consists of introducing new types of aircraft (drones, unmanned aircraft, air taxis) in an airspace compatible with the current airspace. Within this context, Umiles Next and Tecnalia have conducted several flight tests, testing how our air taxi can be included in these airspaces, including coordination with other actors within the airspace and identifying our potential specific needs in these new environments.

What is the extent of the partnership between Umiles Next and Tecnalia? How do the two companies benefit from working together?

Lara: Umiles Next acquired the technology developed by Tecnalia for the development of new flight systems applicable to the air taxi concept Integrity. Currently, Tecnalia is an engineering service provider of Umiles Next that is helping us in the new developments oriented to the implementation of the technology in Integrity 3 (2+1), a new aircraft in design process that represents an evolution with respect to Concept Integrity and in which all the needs are being taken into account for the Type Certification of the same.

Pictured above is the Concept Integrity team at the ATLAS center. Honeywell is leading the USPACE4UAM project, which also includes the companies Vertical Aerospace, CATEC, and ENAIRE. (Photo: UMILES Next)

Can you share any details about the Concept Integrity aircraft and the test flights?

Lara: The Concept Integrity aircraft has so far performed three outdoor flights in the cities of Toulouse, Jaén, and Lugo in which the results obtained previously, in the indoor flights performed, have been corroborated.

The objective of these flights has been to validate the different aspects of the vehicle, its flight envelopes, and, in particular, to verify its own differentiating technologies. The results so far have been very satisfactory since we have been able to verify that the behavior of the aircraft fits with a high precision to the simulations performed. For this purpose, we have tested different flight scenarios, with different ranges, maneuvers, environmental conditions, and air traffic.

An important conclusion of the flights has been the demonstration of the high safety and stability of the aircraft and, by extension, of Umiles Next’s proprietary technology (FlyFree), which presents a clear competitive advantage in the air taxi market, where this need is clearly a commercial driver.

What are some of the company’s short-term objectives?

Lara: The goals we have for the near future can be divided into two parts.

On the one hand, we have the objective of continuing to perform flights with the Concept Integrity aircraft to further validate the technology and with it the flight envelope of the aircraft.

On the other hand, we aim to continue developing the new Integrity 3(2+1), which will be the aircraft that will complete the certification process.

All this together with our autonomous ground vehicle developments will make our vision of “Changing How The Planet Moves” a reality.

“The Concept Integrity was flanked at the testing event by other unmanned aircraft at different layers with a view to proving that this new traffic type can be safely and seamlessly integrated into urban areas in the near future.” (Photo: UMILES Next)

Could you tell us more about the testing of automatic flight control and autonomous take-off and landing systems at Umiles Next?

Lara: Our Concept Integrity aircraft is conceived to be autonomous, which means implementing important innovations in the different flight control and navigation systems.

This approach has a strong implication in conventional air traffic management, which is precisely one of the points we have been working on in all these European projects.

However, we are aware that in the near future, autonomous aircraft for passenger transport will not be certifiable due to a lack of regulation. That is why we have decided to design the Integrity 3 (2+1) aircraft including a pilot as an intermediate step to a future autonomous aircraft.

Within the autonomous systems we have tested in the various flights we have made the autonomous landing and take-off systems, with success.

As everybody knows the landing and take-off phases can be the most challenging of a flight and therefore the realization of these tests means an important step towards the autonomous future of aviation.

What about detect-and-avoid technology?

Lara: We consider that detect-and-avoid systems will be a critical element to introduce this type of new aircraft in the airspace, both manned and especially autonomous, as more and more airspace will include a greater number of aircraft. The fact of increasing the number of aircraft in the airspace will imply a greater need for autonomy in sense and avoid situations.

Without these systems, that we are testing together with other companies, such as Honeywell, this automation would be complicated. That is why in the flights we have already made, one of the elements we have tested is different scenarios in which our eVTOL has faced situations of potential collision with other users of the airspace, the reaction being very positive.

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Airbus Reveals New “DisruptiveLab” Demonstrator and Other Sustainability Efforts

Airbus revealed its new flying laboratory, DisruptiveLab, to test technologies for improving aircraft performance and reducing CO2 emissions for helicopters. (Photo: Airbus)

During its annual summit this week, Airbus revealed its new flying laboratory called DisruptiveLab which was created to test technologies for improving aircraft performance and reducing CO2 emissions for helicopters. Airbus Helicopters plans to conduct the first flight of the DisruptiveLab before the end of 2022.

The French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) provided some financial support for the development of the DisruptiveLab demonstrator, which is part of the French Council for Civil Aviation Research Conseil’s roadmap.

Airbus previously developed another demonstration aircraft, the FlightLab, beginning in 2020. This concept used an H130 platform and targeted research and development of technology to enhance safety and autonomous operation. In comparison, the new DisruptiveLab is aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of aircraft and improving overall performance.

Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters, commented during the Airbus Summit 2022 that the new demonstrator is at the core of the company’s roadmap towards clean aviation. The DisruptiveLab “will combine several technology bricks with the objective to reach a reduction of 50% CO2,” Even stated.

The team at Airbus Helicopters will be testing various components such as aerodynamics, weight, and hybrid power. “The innovative architecture and the fully parallel hybrid propulsion system could only really be tested on a brand new demonstrator in order to verify the combined impact in CO2 reduction,” he commented in the announcement by Airbus.

The company made several announcements during the summit. Airbus shared that it is developing a hydrogen-powered zero-emission engine that could be integrated into its aircraft entering service by 2035. The team plans to start flight testing the new hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine onboard the ZEROe demonstrator aircraft around 2025.

“Airbus has revealed that it is developing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine. The propulsion system is being considered as one of the potential solutions to equip its zero-emission aircraft that will enter service by 2035.” (Photo: Airbus)

“By continuing to invest in this technology we are giving ourselves additional options that will inform our decisions on the architecture of our future ZEROe aircraft, the development of which we intend to launch in the 2027-2028 timeframe,” remarked Glenn Llewellyn, VP Zero-Emission Aircraft at Airbus.

The ZEROe aircraft concepts are all fueled by hydrogen. While three of the aircraft have engines that utilize hydrogen combustion to drive gas turbines, the fourth is configured with six eight-bladed propellers attached to engine pods. The pods contain hydrogen fuel cells to produce electricity that will power electric motors.

This flight test demonstrator is the first developed by Airbus to have a megawatt-class hydrogen fuel cell engine. The demonstrator will use the A380 MSN001 multi-modal flight test platform. Airbus will install a customized cryogenic tank inside the aircraft’s rear fuselage that will hold the liquefied hydrogen.

“With the A380 we also have an aircraft that’s already fully instrumented,” explained Mathias Andriamisaina, Head of ZEROe Demonstrators and Tests at Airbus. He is quoted in the press release from Airbus, saying, “The flight-test-instrumentation (FTI) is a big part of the project and can be a big driver in terms of cost and planning. So MSN001 was the perfect fit for us.”

Airbus announced a collaborative effort with ArianeGroup this week. They will work together to build a liquid hydrogen refueling facility at the Toulouse–Blagnac Airport in France that is expected to start operating in 2025.

“Airbus and ArianeGroup, a joint venture equally owned by Airbus and Safran, and a world leader in space propulsion technologies, will work together to build the first liquid hydrogen refuelling facility for ZEROe aircraft at Toulouse, Blagnac airport.” (Photo: Airbus)

“ArianeGroup, with its unique skills and know-how in the storage, testing, and use of liquid hydrogen, enables new industrial sectors in Europe to accelerate their energy transition,” noted André-Hubert Roussel, CEO.

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Integrating Hardware and Software in Microprocessors to Expedite Avionics Certification

Pre-integrating hardware and software components can alleviate the complications surrounding multi-core processor certification. (Photo: Intel Corporation)

After decades of relying on single-core processors to power everything from flight controls to cockpit instrumentation panels, it appears avionics manufacturers are ready to embrace multi-core processors in the hopes of saving Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) and achieving greater efficiency. But the move toward multi-core processors comes with significant concerns and complications that have impeded the ability to certify the technology.

Here, we will look at the complications surrounding multi-core processor certification and how pre-integrating hardware and software components can alleviate those issues, resulting in more efficient certification processes and safer equipment.

Multi-core complexity creates certification challenges

The concept of determinism dictates that every event has a cause. In compute terms, a two-core processor might have different cores sharing the same cache, each with its own cause.

Things can get complicated when the two converge. For example, a core handling non-safety-critical tasks could accidentally lock the cache, preventing the second core—which handles safety-critical tasks—from performing its functions. The more cores in the processor, the greater the chances of multi-channel interference between the cores.

It’s difficult to predict when or if this will happen, and that has made certifying multi-core processors historically challenging. Certification of any technology depends on that technology behaving in reliable and predictable ways. This is especially important in avionics, which holds strict Design Assurance Level (DAL) standards, particularly DAL-A and DAL-B.

Unfortunately, multi-processing has not traditionally been reliable or predictable, at least as far as avionics certification goes. Avionics manufacturers normally must run multiple cycles to determine possible failures, gather and parse swaths of data, and more—a time-consuming process.

Now, there are tangible and more efficient solutions built on pre-integrated hardware and software components, making multi-core interference much less of a concern. With these integrations, avionics manufacturers can more easily gather safety certification data from the hardware, creating a certification process that is efficient, faster, predictable, and safe.

Hardware integration addresses challenges and expedites certification

There are a few specific ways integrating hardware and software helps avionics teams address their determinism challenges and expedite their certification processes.

First, avionics manufacturers have typically needed to perform their own analysis and characterization of the processor chips they’ve purchased from vendors. That’s because most chips are provided with low-level data, requiring avionics teams to perform extensive due diligence to ensure that the chips’ data corresponds with DO-254 level safety standards.

Conversely, chips designed with both hardware and software in mind, and that already include this information, take much of the onus off avionics teams. They no longer need to concern themselves with combing through multitudes of data to ensure the chips comply with required safety standards and ensure critical workloads do not get preempted. CoreAVI and Intel are working together to help with the product developer’s bottom line. Both companies recognize how important aviation safety is for all and supporting avionics customers’ requirements. The benefits of time and engineering resources savings in platform safety certification are clear. A pre-integrated solution reduces system integrators’ risks and allows a quicker time to deployment.

Second, most multi-core processors include generic bootloaders or a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), of which avionics manufacturers may only use a subset of specialized features. Since the cost to certify a single line of code can be extraordinarily high, avionics teams need to go through the systems and remove any unnecessary code that does not require certification. They must also ensure that codes comply with the parameters around DO-178C, which requires that each line of code have a purpose (or, again, cause).

Bootloaders and BIOS that have been pre-certified and manufactured to provide avionics manufacturers with only relevant code allow avionics teams to streamline their multi-core certification processes. A board support package with just enough data to get the system up and running is an example of a system that uses an integrated hardware and software approach to provide manufacturers with precisely what they need and no more.

A look forward

Improving and accelerating certification processes is only the beginning of a series of potentially game-changing use cases that could result from the use of multi-core processors in avionics.

Multi-core processing will play a key role in making air transportation both smarter and safer. Applications like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) depend on multiple cores to be able to process information, such as wind speed and direction, from various sensors. This information is turned into actionable data that human pilots and self-piloted aircraft can use to make real-time decisions while in flight.

With enough data, a single pilot can fly without the need of a co-pilot and still effectively manage her journey; a drone can accurately drop off a package at a person’s doorstep; or the pilot of an air taxi can maximize the craft’s flight distance.

But these use cases also need the right amount of processing power to manage the data. Multi-core processors built with pre-integrated hardware and software deliver that power, creating greater efficiencies in certification and opportunities for the future.

This article was written by Debra Aubrey, Technical Product Marketing Manager, Federal and Aerospace, Intel Corporation.

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Investing in Live Sports for In-Flight Entertainment Helps Airlines’ Bottom Lines

Airlines can take advantage of the widespread interest in sports by making live sports events available for viewing in-flight. (Photo: Panasonic Avionics)

It is increasingly common for an airline to offer some kind of in-flight entertainment for its passengers, whether through seatback screens or personal devices. One way that airlines can further improve their bottom lines is by adding live sports to their in-flight entertainment (IFE) offering.

Customers have always cared about the quality of the in-flight experience. As air travel makes a comeback from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s even more important to consider what components contribute to a positive experience for passengers.

Watching live events is a unique and valuable experience for many across the world. Especially for national and international competitions, like the World Cup, in-flight viewership can increase tenfold, according to Dominic Green, Senior Director of Product Line Management at Panasonic Avionics. “To harness that ability [to watch live events]—and to take credit for it as an airline that provides access to these unmissable moments—is extremely powerful for curators of the passenger experience,” he explained.

Green added, “Showing live sports on board brings the in-air experience closer to the expectations consumers have on the ground.” Airlines can take advantage of the widespread interest in sports by making live events available for viewing in-flight. Men account for about 60% of the market for sports viewership, but women are responsible for purchasing close to half of all NFL merchandise. In fact, nearly 80% of all sales of sports apparel are conducted with women, according to a recent NYU study cited by Panasonic.

Panasonic Avionics has partnered with IMG to offer Sport 24 and Sport 24 Extra for in-flight entertainment. Live sports are a core part of Panasonic’s offerings for passenger engagement, in addition to live news. According to the company, including live sports with IFE can have a positive impact on budgetary efficiency and tangible metrics.

“Live content is unmissable, and the must-see element can mean changing the way airlines think about appropriating content budgets,” Green shared.

He added, “More time spent engaging with other content experiences like maps or live television means less time and resources that airlines need to allocate in pursuing giant, expensive libraries of content.”

Panasonic Avionics provides high-speed in-flight connectivity for the commercial aviation industry. Their connectivity services provide coverage for 99.8% of global flight routes. Panasonic and OneWeb entered into a distribution agreement to add low earth orbit (LEO) networks to Panasonic’s satellite network. The company’s single panel antenna, or SPA, is a Ku-band antenna with a simplified design that is mounted on the fuselage. Panasonic invests in electronically-steered antennas (ESAs) for LEO and GEO constellations.

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European Innovation Council Awards €2.5M Grant to Dronamics

Dronamics was just awarded a €2.5 million grant from the European Commission’s European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator program. The funds will support continued development and rollout of Dronamics’ cargo drones. (Photo: Dronamics)

Dronamics announced last week that the European Commission’s European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator program awarded them a grant of €2.5 million. These funds will support development and rollout of Dronamics’ fleet of large cargo drones. The grant also goes towards deployment of droneports in the company’s network and towards support of general operations in Europe.

Svilen Rangelov, co-founder and CEO of Dronamics, commented that the support from the EIC serves “as testament to the impact that cargo drone logistics can have on the European Union economy at large.” The EIC has also made commitments in support of the company’s upcoming Series A round.

Rangelov remarked, “We will use this grant to establish our European operations and keep bringing innovation to help elevate communities and businesses using breakthroughs in aviation and technology that will revolutionize air cargo mobility.”

Nearly 1,000 candidates applied for funding by the EIC Accelerator program, which awarded grants to only a handful of companies.

Dronamics is headquartered in the UK. The company announced Quickstep as its first strategic manufacturing partner earlier this year. Quickstep will oversee manufacturing of the cargo drones in New South Wales, Australia. Dronamics plans to enter the Australian market in 2023.

Dronamics claims to be the first cargo drone company to receive a European drone airline license, or light UAS operator certificate (LUC), which is granted individually by European national aviation authorities.

“Built specifically for cargo, unlike other aircraft, the Black Swan can carry the same load as a small cargo van at a distance of up to 2,500 km, resulting in cost, time, and carbon emission savings.” (Photo: Dronamics)

In an interview with Avionics International earlier this year, CEO Rangelov shared that the team’s strategy is “to create a new type of vehicle that’s more efficient to produce and more efficient to operate than existing technology.”

Rangelov also participated in a recent webinar on the future of advanced air mobility, along with the CEOs of Elroy Air, Pyka, and MightyFly. All four companies are developing cargo drones for different missions and markets. The Black Swan that Dronamics is developing will be operated as a middle-mile solution for distances of at least 300 miles.

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Port of Rotterdam Chooses Airwayz for UTM System Prototype

The Port of Rotterdam Authority chose Airwayz to build a U-Space prototype for the port industrial complex. The U-Space services will be set up over the next two years and Airwayz’ UTM system will be configured in a way that is specific to the needs and requirements of the port. (Photo: Airwayz)

The Port of Rotterdam Authority has selected the software provider Airwayz as a partner to prototype an air traffic management system for unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The system will enable drones and helicopters to operate in the same airspace. Drones can be used at the Port of Rotterdam for surveillance, inspections, delivery services, and incident control.

Airwayz is based in Tel Aviv. Its unmanned traffic management (UTM) system for UAS utilizes artificial intelligence to enable the full potential of drone operations. UTM requires a high degree of automation because there is not enough time to account for human decision timelines.

“We have proven technology that can support multiple scalable drone operations in real time,” shared Airwayz CEO, Eyal Zor, in an interview with Avionics International. Zor noted that this may be the first client looking at deploying and scaling up a commercial UTM system.

Airwayz enables efficient drone operations, which means that the operators can conduct enough flights in real time to support their clients or end-users. “We have the technology to connect all the different stakeholders—dozens of drone operators—and enable them to operate simultaneously within the same airspace, without compromising the safety measures that are needed for the port to conduct such operations and manage its own airspace,” Zor explained.

The Port of Rotterdam selected Airwayz for this partnership because of the company’s automated system that can scale up to match increasing drone activity. Not only can drones offer support to the 3,000 companies that operate within the port, but Airwayz demonstrated that such operations could result in a commercial revenue stream.

According to Zor, one of the main challenges is to prove that the model is working successfully. “There are a lot of stakeholders,” he said. “With a UTM, you are responsible for connecting all of the drone operators in the port and making sure they are in compliance with the set of rules that you define with the local regulators and the port itself.”

He added that there is a need to ensure other vehicles operating in the port are connected. There are other stakeholders who want to connect to the system,” he said. “There are eight helicopter fleet operators within the port. They also need to be part of the ecosystem we are deploying.”

Over the next few years, the challenge is going to be making sure that the market is ready to adopt increased commercial drone operations. “I’m quite optimistic,” Zor said, “because when I see different industries like autonomous cars, compared to where we are today in terms of deployment, the market is showing a high level of readiness regarding commercial activity.”

“A lot of companies already do drone deliveries,” he added. “Compared to different industries, the acceptance is already there at an initial level.”

Aviation authorities and ANSPs will play an important role in increasing the market’s acceptance of UTM companies. Their approach will be “making sure the industry is advancing without compromising safety,” Zor remarked, “and ensuring that stakeholders understand their rights to adopt this technology.”

Airwayz initiated a pilot program in Israel last year. The team operated a UTM system within a defined corridor to manage drone fleets from five different UAS companies. The drones used their own UAS service systems for route planning and flying, and these systems communicated with the UTM system operated by Airwayz.

The post Port of Rotterdam Chooses Airwayz for UTM System Prototype appeared first on Avionics International.

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