| About the project and its participants |
Within the next 20 years air traffic is expected to triple worldwide. This would lead to an increase of aircraft accidents given existing on-board and on-ground systems. Despite the fact that accidents are rare, such an increase is perceived as unacceptable and therefore new systems and solutions must be found to maintain the current low rate of accidents.
Funded by the EU, 36 participants from 14 countries have joined forces to design, develop, implement, test and validate a complete Next Generation Integrated Surveillance System (NGISS), going one generation further than the emerging integrated safety systems. Under the name of 'FLYSAFE', organisations across Europe will work together to develop airborne integrated systems for safety improvement, flight hazard protection and all weather operations. FLYSAFE participants include:
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FLYSAFE Objectives... at a glance
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The project aims to reduce the level of fatal aircraft accidents. It will do this by tackling major accident occurrences and by considering a full range of information — from tactical to strategic, allowing more time for the crew to assess a potential danger. The new systems and functions provided by FLYSAFE will allow pilots to have a detailed, accurate and unambiguous presentation of the aircraft safety situation during all phases of flight.
The main focus of the project will be on the areas identified as the main causes of accidents around the world, i.e.
- loss of control;
- controlled flight into terrain;
- approach and landing;
as well as the threats of ground collision, air collision and adverse weather conditions both during flight and around airports.
FLYSAFE will be an essential project developing solutions to enable all aircraft to get, in the near future, timely, dedicated, improved weather information. These solutions will use new Weather Information Management Systems (WIMS) that are able to gather, format and send relevant atmospheric data, direct to the aircraft presented in an innovative and consistent way to the pilot. The WIMS will predict wake vortices, clear air turbulence, icing and thunderstorms, while other systems will be used to provide information on other (weather) hazards.
Validation of the complete system and proof of results, with both ground and on-board components, will be made available by a set of simulator and flight tests involving a representative group of pilots.
| Further information |
For more information visit the FLYSAFE web site.
For further information relating to Met Office involvement in this project, please contact aviation@metoffice.gov.uk.
