Small Air Transport (SAT) is emerging as suitable transportation means in order to allow efficient travel over a regional range, in particular for commuters, based on the use of small airports and fixed wing aircraft with 5 to 19 seats, belonging to the EASA CS-23 category. The affordability of the SAT industry needs to be supported by the availability of new technological solutions allowing reducing the related operational costs while at the same time maintaining the required flight safety levels. In this framework, Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking funded the project COAST (Cost Optimized Avionics SysTem), which started in 2016 with the aim of tackling this challenge and delivering key technology enablers for the affordable cockpit and avionics, while also enabling the single pilot operations for small aircraft. The project activities cover several technologies and, among them, some selected ones, specifically addressing flight management, are considered in this paper, whose aim is the one of providing an outline of the design and implementation process status reached up to date, emphasizing the obtained results and the work to be done in the future activities expected to be performed in the project. The selected technologies here considered are the ones of tactical traffic separation and enhanced situational awareness, meteorological enhanced awareness, and pilot’s incapacitation emergency management. The paper, therefore, focuses on a selected cluster, from the overall framework of the COAST project, of SAT single pilot operations enabling technologies: Tactical Separation System (TSS), Flight Reconfiguration System (FRS), and Advanced Weather Awareness System (AWAS). In the paper, a description is first reported of the overall COAST project objectives, motivations and approach to the SAT vehicles cockpit design. Then, the implemented design process is outlined and the description of each of the above-indicated selected technologies is presented (the additional technologies considered in the COAST project are out of the scope of this paper). Based on that, for each of the considered systems (TSS, FRS, AWAS) the status of the design and implementation process is described and the next steps expected to be implemented in the project are outlined.

Small Air Transport (SAT) is emerging as suitable transportation means to allow efficient travel over a regional range, in particular for commuters, based on the use of small airports and fixed-wing aircraft with 5 to 19 seats, belonging to the EASA CS-23 category. In this framework, Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking, in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, funded the project COAST (Cost Optimized Avionics SysTem), which started in 2016 with the aim of delivering key technology enablers for the affordable cockpit and avionics, while also enabling single-pilot operations for aircraft in the SAT domain. In the project, some relevant flight management technologies to support single-pilot operations are considered, namely the ones of tactical traffic separation and enhanced situational awareness, meteorological enhanced awareness, and pilot’s incapacitation emergency management. These technologies have been subject to a dedicated design and implementation process, based on an individual approach where each of them has been considered as independent and dedicated single-pilot operations enabling technology. Nevertheless, during the project execution, it emerged the opportunity to consider proper integration and enhancement of such technologies to design a unique Integrated Mission Management System (IMMS). Such IMMS technology has been considered as a potential solution to support the more effective and safe management of situations of pilot’s incapacitation during the flight, under single-pilot operations, and as a relevant step forward towards more autonomous aircraft. Based on these considerations, Clean Sky supported and funded proper extension of the COAST project scope, to include the design of the additional Integrated Mission Management System. This paper, therefore, aims to outline the main concepts implemented by the baseline individual technologies (Flight Reconfiguration System, Tactical Separation System, and Advanced Weather Awareness System) already considered in the COAST project and representing the basic building blocks towards IMMS and, after that, aims to introduce the IMMS motivations and opportunities. Furthermore, the paper describes the main functionalities expected to be implemented by the Integrated Mission Management System and, finally, the expected design and implementation process.

Purpose This paper aims to describe the idea and partial result of research on flight reconfiguration system (FRS) which is to be used in case of pilot incapacitation while performing the single-pilot operations for defining and guiding an aircraft to a safe destination. Design/methodology/approach Multiple problems with the development of emergency systems which could deal with crisis on-board occurs, e.g. definition of emergency destination which is dealing with the thread, ensuring that route to an emergency destination is safe, avoiding of air traffic and making sure that aircraft performance limitations would not be exceeded. FRS is a sophisticated hardware design, gathering data from aircraft on-board systems, commanding autopilot where to go and informing air traffic on crisis on-board. Developed algorithm analyzes data from onboard systems, internal database to calculate potential safe places and best routes to them. Multi-criteria decision-making is used to choose the best of them and execute it when needed. Findings Algorithms and hardware were tested in a simulated environment. An exemplary research experiment oriented on finding emergency destination and flying to it in the Software-In-The-Loop environment was presented. Research limitations/implications Currently, the use of the system is limited to use on-board of well-equipped CS-23 class aircraft and is limited to use in good weather conditions. Practical implications The use of FRS will in case of emergency constitute a new category of emergency maneuver, used for dealing with no-human pilot available on-board situations – autonomous emergency destination finding and route execution. Originality/value This study helps in the introduction of multi-stage decision-making to autonomously reconfigure route.

Purpose This paper aims to describe the activities that are ongoing, in the Cost Optimized Avionics SysTem (COAST) project, to design an integrated mission management system (IIMS) to be used as support to the pilot and/or to act as a backup in case of pilot incapacitation onboard on small air transport (SAT) vehicles, under single-pilot operations. Design/methodology/approach The COAST project, funded by Clean Sky 2 programme, is developing enabling technologies for single-pilot operations in the European Aviation Safety Agency CS-23 category vehicles. Such technologies include specific tools that are designed as individual enablers for single-pilot operations and specifically address: the real-time support to pilot’s decision making in maintaining the vehicle self-separation (this technology is the tactical separation system [TSS]); the real-time support to pilot’s situational awareness about observed and forecasted weather conditions (this technology is the advanced weather awareness system [AWAS]); and the real-time management of emergency conditions due to pilot’s incapacitation under single-pilot operations (this technology is the flight reconfiguration system [FRS]). Based on the outcomes of the design activities of such individual tools, in the COAST project emerged the opportunity to proceed with the design of a further system, leveraging the individual tools and benefitting from their integration. Findings The IMMS design started in the year 2020 and the activities carried out up to mid-2021 allowed to define the concept of operations of the system, its high-level requirements (functional, interface and operational requirements) and the preliminary system architecture. Originality/value The IMMS contributes enabling the implementation of single-pilot operations in CS-23 category vehicles, thanks to the possibility to support, in normal operational conditions, the pilot’s decision-making and, in emergency conditions due to pilot’s incapacitation, the automatic flight management up to the safe destination.

Purpose This paper aims to describe the idea behind and design of a miniaturized distributed measurement system based on a controller area network (CAN) data bus. Design/methodology/approach The intention of the designers was to build a light and modular measurement system which can be used in remotely piloted aircraft systems and ultra-light aircraft during flight tests, as well as normal operation. The structure of this distributed measurement system is based on a CAN data bus. The CAN aerospace standard has been applied to the software as well as the hardware comprising this system. PRP-W2 software designed for PCs is an additional component of the proposed measurement system. This software supports data acquisition from a recorder unit and allows for preliminary data analysis, as well as data conversion and presentation. Findings The system, complete with a high-speed data recorder, was successfully installed on board of an MP-02 Czajka aircraft. A research experiment using the system and oriented on airframe high frequency vibration analysis is presented in the final part of this paper. Research limitations/implications This measurement system allows analysis of high-frequency vibrations occurring at selected points of the aircraft. A data set is recorded by three-axis accelerometers and gyroscopes at frequencies up to 1 kHz. Practical implications The use of a miniature and lightweight modular measurement system will, in many cases, be faster and less expensive than full-scale measurement and data acquisition systems, which often require a lengthy assembly process. The implementation of this class of lightweight flight test systems has many advantages, in particular to the operation of small aircraft. Such solutions are likely to become increasingly common in unmanned aerial vehicles and in other light aircraft in the future. Originality/value The adaptation of a distributed measuring system with a high frequency of measurements for purposes of small and miniature aircraft.