Airbus supports partnership for more efficiency in European airspace.
The world’s first flight
using a four dimensional optimized and upgraded Air Traffic Management
(ATM) technology has taken place with Airbus’ dedicated A320 test
aircraft flying from Toulouse to Copenhagen and Stockholm. The project
is called I-4D (Initial-4D). The main benefits of I-4D are a significant
reduction of fuel burn and C02 emissions, in line with SESAR*’s target
to reduce the environmental impact per flight by ten percent, a decrease
of delays and therefore shorter and smoother flights for passengers.
This flight test offers a concrete solution towards
improving the existing European system which is reaching its capacity
limit. It is a world premiere in the ongoing transformation of today’s
air traffic management system.Once proven and industrialized, it will allow
aircraft to plan and fly an optimized and efficient profile without any
need for the controllers to provide any vectoring instruction. This will
bring better predictability of the traffic flows and facilitate
Continuous Descent Operations into airports. As a result, aircraft
flying in a holding pattern will be notably reduced.
I-4D trajectory management relies on an aircraft
function that predicts and transmits data to the ground enabling the
aircraft to accurately fly a trajectory after coordination with the
ground systems. This is called a 4D-trajectory as it is described in
three dimensions (lateral, longitudinal and vertical) and it includes
one target time at a specific merging point (time as the fourth
dimension). I-4D is the first step in developing one of the
essential pillars of the SESAR programme: conciliating the increasing
traffic density with the efficiency of flights. It is the result of
several months of collaboration between SESAR partners.
One of Airbus’ key roles has been to test the
upgraded flight management (Navigation) and communication systems with
each other and to integrate them into the real aircraft architecture.
More flight trials and simulations are planned in
2012 and 2013. The first I-4D operation is planned in Europe from 2018
onwards.
About Initial-4D
Operational partners: Airbus, EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) and NORACON (1)
Ground Industry: Indra and Thales ATM
Airborne Industry: Honeywell, Thales Avionics and Airbus
* About SESAR
The SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) joint
undertaking is a public-private partnership created to provide improved
control of the aircraft flying the skies of Europe, prevent crippling
congestion and reduce the overall environmental impact of air
transport. I4D is a project in this broad programme to achieve the goals
of Sesar.
Airbus is a major contributor to all activities, and
is leading the aircraft work package that defines onboard solutions to
meet operational improvement targets identified in the SESAR master
plan.
(1) NORACON is a consortium of eight air navigation
service providers: Austro Control and the North European ANS Providers
(NEAP), Avinor (Norway), EANS (Estonia), Finavia (Finland), IAA
(Ireland), ISAVIA (Iceland), LFV (Sweden) and Naviair (DK). LFV and
Naviair will participate in the I-4D flight trial.
