National remote and regional transport strategy: consultation draft

On 22 May 2014, the Northern Territory hosted the National Remote and Regional Transport Infrastructure and Services Forum in Alice Springs, attended by 120 industry, government and community representatives from all areas of Australia. Following the Forum, the Council agreed for the Northern Territory to lead the development of the National Remote and Regional Transport Strategy, in collaboration with the South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and Commonwealth governments. The Strategy will propose specific actions to address issues faced in remote and regional areas in relation to transport infrastructure, services and regulation. On 22 May 2015, the Council approved the release of the draft Strategy for public consultation. As part of the consultation period, stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the draft Strategy and its proposed actions. For more information on the Strategy, or to make a submission, please visit the following link: www.transport.nt.gov.au/nrrts. Please note the closing date for submissions is 5pm Friday 31 July 2015 (ACST). Transport – A Vital Role The availability and quality of transport infrastructure and services impacts on every part of our society and wellbeing. Good transport systems provide a platform for improving productivity and driving social and economic growth for all Australians. Remote and Regional Areas – Supporting all of Australia The remote and regional area of Australia covers 85 percent of the Australian land mass, however has only 15 percent of the Australian population. But significantly, this area is responsible for 40 percent of Australia\u27s GDP due to its considerable resource sector and primary industries. Transport Challenges Remote and regional areas face specific transport challenges which do not apply to the highly populated eastern seaboard of Australia – all influenced by vast distances, a small population, climatic extremes, and demanding geography. It is for this reason that a one size fits all approach to transport regulation and infrastructure and service delivery just doesn\u27t work for the remote and regional areas of Australia. The Need for a National Strategy The aim of the National Remote and Regional Transport Strategy is to provide some practical solutions to the issues and challenges faced by transport system providers and users so that this important area of Australia can continue to grow and contribute to Australia\u27s wellbeing. The Council will discuss the final Strategy and its implementation at its meeting in November 2015

Architecture and Information Requirements to Assess and Predict Flight Safety Risks During Highly Autonomous Urban Flight Operations

As aviation adopts new and increasingly complex operational paradigms, vehicle types, and technologies to broaden airspace capability and efficiency, maintaining a safe system will require recognition and timely mitigation of new safety issues as they emerge and before significant consequences occur. A shift toward a more predictive risk mitigation capability becomes critical to meet this challenge. In-time safety assurance comprises monitoring, assessment, and mitigation functions that proactively reduce risk in complex operational environments where the interplay of hazards may not be known (and therefore not accounted for) during design. These functions can also help to understand and predict emergent effects caused by the increased use of automation or autonomous functions that may exhibit unexpected non-deterministic behaviors. The envisioned monitoring and assessment functions can look for precursors, anomalies, and trends (PATs) by applying model-based and data-driven methods. Outputs would then drive downstream mitigation(s) if needed to reduce risk. These mitigations may be accomplished using traditional design revision processes or via operational (and sometimes automated) mechanisms. The latter refers to the in-time aspect of the system concept. This report comprises architecture and information requirements and considerations toward enabling such a capability within the domain of low altitude highly autonomous urban flight operations. This domain may span, for example, public-use surveillance missions flown by small unmanned aircraft (e.g., infrastructure inspection, facility management, emergency response, law enforcement, and/or security) to transportation missions flown by larger aircraft that may carry passengers or deliver products. Caveat: Any stated requirements in this report should be considered initial requirements that are intended to drive research and development (R&D). These initial requirements are likely to evolve based on R&D findings, refinement of operational concepts, industry advances, and new industry or regulatory policies or standards related to safety assurance

Integration of UAS in Air Traffic and Commercial Space Management

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are going to be integrated into the National Airspace (NAS) as well as into the Single European Sky (SESAR). I. e. the European Roadmap describes a step by step approach with a full integration by 2028. Currently space vehicles are also developed to fly remotely piloted in space as well in near orbits or during reentry. Although they will fly without pilot operations on board, they may carry passengers or astronauts, respectively, or they will operate as a fully unmanned freighter to transport supply to the ISS or other space based stations. Currently these flights are operated in segregated airspace during launch and landing. When the number of flights will increase due to the commercialization of space transport, the use of restricted airspace will be no more feasible. To manage segregated airspace is costly and it is affecting the capacity of the air transport system. As the concepts and technology for air traffic insertion of UAS currently exist to a quite matured level, they should be also applied to space vehicles. A concept will be proposed which considers not to fully apply all rules for manned aircraft but to create a system for integration according to achieve an equivalent level of safety for unmanned aircraft and spacecraft

UAM Airspace Design

The aim of this project is to justify the necessity of a specific airspace dedicated to drone operations, in particular in the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) field, and to expose which aspects are going to be the most limiting in the design of this airspace for autonomous aircrafts. The commercial aviation case is presented to demonstrate that an effective implementation of the UAM requires the creation of a dedicated airspace as well as international legal harmonisation: a mode of air transportation that carries out thousands of flights every day while ensuring high levels of safety at all times thanks to its defined rules and airspace structure. The different reasons why the aviation airspace cannot be escalated to the UAM are also exposed. Once the necessity for the UAM sector to have its own drone-designed airspace has been justified, the main barriers and potential solutions that the experts and corresponding authorities working on the sector have identified are exposed. These challenges come from fields as diverse as operational security, infrastructure and ground area protection, adverse weather conditions, technological and vehicle limitations, and a factor that is often overlooked but is crucial: social acceptance. The establishment of the UAM airspace will require the development and design of a ground infrastructure capable of ensuring that aircraft can takeoff and land safely in each operation. The main European vertiport guidelines are explained. To conclude the project and use the knowledge acquired in its elaboration, a use case in the UAM sector is briefly designed: the transport of VIPs by drone from different Catalan airports to the ¿Circuit de Montmeló¿ in punctual cases, such as when a Grand Prix is held

Commercial Space Transportation and Air Traffic Insertion - SESAR Requirements and the European Perspective

Commercial Space Transportation becomes an international business and requires landing opportunities all over the world. Hence the integration of space vehicles in other airspace than the US NAS is an important topic to be considered. The Single European Sky ATM Research Programme (SESAR) is preparing the implementation of a new ATM system in Europe. The requirements are defined by the concept of the shared Business Trajectory and System Wide Information Management (SWIM). Space vehicle operations are associated with the requested need for submitting an Mishap Investigation Plan (MIP), containing responding and reporting procedures referring to possible reentry or launch incidents or accidents. This leads to the submission of an Emergency Response Plan (ERP), addressing information procedures about a planned Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) mission of the airspace alerting and emergency services in the areas of: Emergency Detection o Information relay between the Commercial Space Transportation (CST ) vehicle operator and the Traffic Flow Management (TFM ) Response Organization o Due to the fact that orbital CST missions may need to be aborted anywhere around the earth, a global alerting function has to include segregated foci of the involved response organizations, from international down to regional or even local reaction units. This paper describes the integration of the above mentioned services in the Air Traffic Management (ATM) information exchange concept of SWIM. It proposes an implementation concept via the world wide use of Remote Tower Operations (RTO) for surveillance of safe landings at spaceports far away from the launch/start site

Operations of an Hybrid Airship over Congested Areas

On 24th September 1852, Jules Henri Giffard, French inventor and engineer, makes the first flight in the history of airships, 51 years before the first flight of the Wright Brothers. At that moment he opened a window in the history of aviation, particularly in the field of airships. This type of aircraft belongs to the family of aerostats, having a lighter than air gas filing an envelope providing lift and its own means of propulsion. The main focus is the study of current aeronautical legislation regarding visual flight rules, building requirements for airfields supporting the operation of the aircraft, in particular, regular surface-level airfields as well as a new type of aircraft deck. A case study was made for the city of Lisbon, Portugal. This legislation review has the main objective of pinpointing lacunae for this special type of aircraft and respective support infrastructure, providing answers to the challenges identified and thus allowing for an update in legislation. An effort is also made to use and update existing helicopter legislation and adapt it for hybrid airships, thus allowing a safe operation of the aircraft.Em 24 de Setembro de 1852, Jules Henri Giffard, um inventor e engenheiro francês, realiza o primeiro voo da história dos dirigíveis, 51 anos antes do primeiro voo dos Irmãos Wright. Naquele momento, ele abriu uma janela na história da aviação, mais particularmente no ramo dos dirigíveis. Este tipo de aeronave pertence à família dos aeróstatos, possuindo um gás mais leve do que ar que enche um envelope que permite a sustentação e meios próprios de propulsão. O principal foco deste estudo é rever a legislação aeronáutica actual no que toca a regras de voo visuais, requisitos de construção para aeródromos que suportam a operação do dirigível, em particular, aeródromos de superfície assim como um novo tipo de plataforma de pouso. Um caso de estudo foi feito para a cidade de Lisboa, Portugal. Esta revisão tem como objectivo apontar lacunas da legislação para este tipo especial de aeronave e respectivas infraestruturas de suporte, providenciando soluções aos desafios encontrados, permitindo assim uma actualização de legislação. Também é feito um esforço no sentido de actualizar legislação específica de helicópteros, e adapta-la para dirigíveis híbridos, de modo a que a operação possa ser feita de forma segura

Modelling airport surface safety: a framework for a holistic airport safety management

Airports are complex systems involving the continuous interaction of human operators with the physical infrastructure, technology and procedures to ensure the safe and efficient conduct of flights. From an operational perspective, airport surface operations (i.e. runway and taxiway operations) require the interaction of five main stakeholders (i.e. crew or pilots, air traffic control, airport operator, ground handling and regulator) both to facilitate the ground movement of aircraft and vehicles, and to maintain the surface in a working condition. The complexity of these operations makes the runway and taxiway system vulnerable and presents a risk of failure with the consequent potential for the occurrence of accidents. Therefore, the development and implementation of an effective Safety Management System (SMS) are required to ensure the highest level of safety for surface operations. A SMS is a systematic approach to managing safety based on the four cornerstones of safety policy and objectives, risk management, assurance, and safety promotion. Although the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) provides the global legislative framework for SMS, the relevant regulations are still to be established at the national level with the consequence that practical guidance on the development and implementation of SMS is rare, and reliable tools to support SMS are lacking. The consequence of this is that the current approach to surface safety management is piecemeal and not integrated. Typically, a single accident and incident type is investigated from the perspective of an individual stakeholder with the consequence that resulting proposals for safety mitigation measures are biased and limited in terms of their impact. In addition, the industry is characterised by non-standardised data collection and investigation practices, insufficient or missing definitions, differing reporting levels, and a lack of a coherent and standardised structure for efficient coding and analysis of safety data. Since these shortcomings are a major barrier to the required holistic and integrated approach to safety management, this thesis addresses the four cornerstones of SMS and recommends major enhancements. In particular, a framework for a holistic airport surface safety management is proposed. The framework comprises the static airport architecture, a process model of surface operations, the determination of causal factors underlying failure modes of these operations, a macroscopic scenario tool and a functional relationship model. Safety data and other data sources feed the framework and a dedicated data pre-processing strategy ensures its validity. Unlike current airport surface safety management practices, the proposed framework assesses the safety of the operations of all relevant actors. Firstly, the airport architecture is modelled and the physical and functional variability of airports defined. Secondly, a process model of surface operations is developed, which captures the tasks of the stakeholders and their interactions with physical airport surface infrastructure. This model serves as a baseline model and guides the further development of the airport SMS. To manage the safety of surface operations, the causes of accidents and incidents must be identified and their impacts understood. To do so, a reference data set combining twelve databases from airlines, airport operators, Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), ground handling companies and regulators is collected. Prior to its analysis, the data is assessed for its quality, and in particular, for its internal validity (i.e. precision), external validity (i.e. accuracy) and in terms of reporting levels. A novel external data validation framework is developed and each database is rated with a data quality index (DQI). In addition, recommendations for reporting systems and safety policies are given. Subsequently, the data is analysed for causal factors across stakeholders and the contribution of the individual actors are highlighted. For example, the analysis shows that the various stakeholders capture different occurrence types and underlying causal factors, often including information that is of potential use for another party. The analysis is complemented by interviews, observations and statistical analysis, and the results are summarised in a new taxonomy. This taxonomy is applicable to all relevant stakeholders and is recommended for operational safety risk management. After the airport surface operations have been modelled and the drivers to safety identified, the results are combined, resulting in a macroscopic scenario tool which supports the management of change (i.e. safety assurance), training and education, and safety communication (i.e. safety promotion) functions of the SMS. Finally, a structured framework to assess the functional relationship between airport surface accidents / incidents and their underlying causal factors is proposed and the system is quantified in terms of safety. Compared to the state-of-the-art safety assessments that are biased and limited in terms of their impact, the holistic approach to surface safety allows modelling the safety impact of each system component, their interactions and the entire airport surface system architecture. The framework for a holistic airport surface safety management developed in this thesis delivers a SMS standard for airports. The standard exceeds international requirements by standardizing the two SMS core functions (safety risk management and safety assurance) and integrating safety-relevant information across all relevant stakeholders. This allows a more effective use of safety information and provides an improved overview on, and prediction of, safety risks and ultimately improves the safety level of airports and their stakeholders. Furthermore, the methodology employed in this thesis is flexible and could be applied to all aspects of aviation SMS and system analysis.Open Acces

Test Sites Operations Document for Prague-Ruzyne, Toulouse-Blagnac and Milan-Malpensa

The scope of the EMMA D1.6.1_TSOD (Test Sites Operations Document for Prague-Ruzyne, Toulouse-Blagnac and Milan-Malpensa) is to provide readers with a global view of each Test-Site first and then both to describe the current way of operating at these three Airports and the new implementing Equipments and Operational Procedures that will be tested through the Validation Activities. Information contained in this document will be consistent with the EMMA Operational Requirements Document and to plan the V and V activities with SP6

Artificial Neural Networks for Airport Runway Safety Systems

This paper presents the analysis of the existing approaches to ensuring the safety of aircraft`s takeoff and landing at airport runways using video surveillance systems. The subject area is formalized, and security threats and measures to prevent them are assessed. Optional architecture of the system designed for detection and classification of moving objects in the airport runway area is presented. The architecture is based on Neural Networks with AI elements. Also the original method of runway objects’ trajectory tracking is proposed. And finally, the research results of the applicability of the proposed architecture are presented.</p