Successfully completed in the COAST project the first flight demonstration campaign carried out at the Kunovice International Airport in the Czech Republic and coordinated by the project leader Honeywell International.
In the flight demonstration campaign, the two technologies developed by CIRA in the project have been tested in real operational environment: the Tactical Separation System (TSS) and the Advanced Weather Awareness System (AWAS). Based on the detailed analysis of the collected flight data and on the release of the overall test report, both CIRA technologies successfully completed the flight test campaign.
The aim of the TSS flight tests was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system in detecting conflict conditions, elaborating proper conflict resolution manoeuvre and providing it to the pilot, through dedicated HMI, so to constitute an effective on-board pilot's decision-making support system for separation management at tactical level. The demonstration has been performed by using real ownship (EVEKTOR EV-55 Outback) and real intruder (EVEKTOR VUT-100 Cobra) aircraft in real conflict conditions, assessing the TSS behaviour in the main conflict geometries (head-on and beam). The TSS performed as expected, demonstrating to be able to provide the pilot with suitable manoeuvre to avoid the infringement of the separation volume around the conflicting vehicle in the exemplary conflict geometries considered.
The AWAS flight tests were aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system in providing the pilot, through dedicated HMI, with complete awareness of weather situation, including both observed and forecasted information, assisting the pilot decision-making in avoiding entry into atmospherically dangerous areas. The demonstration has been performed by providing the pilot of the ownship (EVEKTOR EV-55 Outback) with data elaborated by the AWAS, which is a distributed system involving ground segment and flight segment connected via satellite communication, during the real flight execution. The AWAS performed as expected, providing advanced weather awareness and support to the pilot in managing weather related hazards.
TSS and AWAS technologies development as individual technologies is therefore successfully concluded and these technologies are now being evolved towards their enhanced versions to be included in the Integrated Mission Management System (IMMS), whose design is ongoing, under CIRA coordination, in the COAST project.
