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Validate Operations to Reduce Impact on Environment

Final Report Summary - VALORIE (Validate Operations to Reduce Impact on Environment)

Executive Summary:
VALORIE is a validation project under the umbrella of Clean Sky “Systems for Greener Operations” Integrated Technology Evaluator. Its aim is to validate novel on-board FMS functionality targeted for greener departures and cruise by the means of flight simulation. Lately, fixed-base simulation began to provide an equivalent means of certainty to real in-flight validation, with a substantially reduced cost and lack of safety risks.

The modelling of a broader operational environment that includes ATC, airports, CFMU, etc. can be well done by advanced simulation and gaming techniques. There is a mature methodology available to do air transport industry-related validation, namely E-OCVM that can be used off-the-shelf for aviation-related operational validation.

However, validation is usually conducted by a group of experts coming from the same operator. This approach (governed by the fact that gathering experts from different employers is a challenging task) prevents the heterogeneity that would be by implicitly beneficial for the outcome validation. Experts doing their daily work in the same corporate environment are trained for the same company processes. This leads to similar approach to the validation subject and results in similar opinions at the end.

Being aware of the above-stated, VALORIE puts emphasis on increased heterogeneity of the expert group validating operational scenarios provided by SGO. This heterogeneity is ensured by the resources of the consortium that comprises different types of crew and ground staff profiles. This approach will result in an added value generated by the synergy of opinions coming from experts working in the same field of air transport industry but being aware of different company practices and policies.

Project Context and Objectives:
VALORIE (VALidate Operations to Reduce Impact on Environment) aims to support Systems for Green Operations ITD in validation of novel, environment-aware practices of aircraft take-off and cruise against a wide spectrum of available operational expertise.

The high competitiveness of the airline industry along with the uncertainties in the oil market require a continuing review of the strategy to be adopted by Airlines in order to establish maximum operational efficiency. As long as safety is not in concern, nothing should be rejected in reference to environmental implications. The increasing social awareness about climate change, the willingness of consumers not tolerant with climate issues and the development of increasingly restrictive regulations on pollutant emissions are causing a profound restructuring of energy management.

The development of proper fuel policy represents an important tool for the sake of optimization of the same and thus a decisive step in terms of profitability and continued viability of air activity. This study develops a series of measures to achieve this objective be subject to revision and/or changes on a regular basis in order to adapt to the environment Fuel Policy existing operating at all times.

In addition to this, reduction of aircraft noise is being another key issue in the strategy to reduce the impact of Airspace Traffic Management (ATM) on the environment. Although individual aircraft have become 75% less noisy over the last 30 years, the growing amount of air traffic means that many citizens are still exposed to high noise levels. In order to ensure the sustainability of aviation, measures targeting the noise impact will remain necessary at a number of important airports.

However, noise-related measures constrain not only airport capacity at a particular airport but also the aviation system as a whole through knock-on effects. Therefore, decisions on noise measures and the desired level of noise protection must be balanced against the overall capacity implications.

Project Results:
In this section we describe the main results from the VALORIE project. Several concepts are currently in use by the airlines in order to minimise the fuel consumption and the noise in the vicinity of the airports. Fuel consumption and environmental impact is a significant concern in today’s aviation that is being under study in the frame of European projects such as the Clean Sky CARING (Contribution of Airlines to the Reduction of Industry Nuisances and Gases) project.

A number of new concepts are being developed to further optimise fuel burnt and minimise the environmental impact in terms of noise and emissions. Some of these new concepts are developed within Clean Sky. They are defined as the Multi Criteria Departure Procedure (MCDP) and Adaptive Increased Glide Slope (A-IGS). Taking current procedures as the baseline and the definition of these new functions, an assessment of the impact of these new functions on the current procedures is included within this document.

The above objectives have been achieved and the main developments and results are described in the subsections below.

WP 1. Management and dissemination

The objective of WP1 was to provide guidance to the project as well as to create and to implement appropriate coordination mechanisms to conduct the project on schedule and with the required quality by making an efficient use of the resources. The following project management activities have been performed during the reporting period:
• Management and administrative tasks within the consortium.
• Management of contractual and administrative issues with the Clean Sky Project Officer.
• Activities involving interaction with the SGO-ITD.
• Assessment, evaluation and reporting of project results.
• Continuous monitoring of the WPs progress.
• Enforcement of technical quality and consistency of intermediate reports.
• Organisation, coordination and communication procedures, telecoms, webex and F2F meetings between Topic Manager and the Consortium.
• Organisation, coordination and communication procedures, telecoms, webex and F2F meetings between the Consortium members.
• Documentation management and quality review of deliverables.
• Planning update.
• Continuous management of risks and issues.
• Attendance to the Clean Sky General Forum that took place on the 20th November 2014.

WP 2. Analysis of mission preparation and execution management

The goal of this work package was to further analyse and detail the materials provided by SGO-ITD. The result of the WP has been the main source for the definition of validation scenarios. The objectives of this WP have been achieved. The main purpose was to analyse the new functions provided by SGO-ITD, to eventually state the overall operability of the new functions developed. The following activities were performed:
• Analysis of current mode of operations,
• Consideration of different stakeholders’ points of view,
• Consideration of different airline business models, and
• Consideration of different technical options,

Furthermore, the following activities to complete the objectives of the WP have been developed:
• A task of validation related to identification of key indicators. The methodology to assess the
benefits of the implementation of this function has also been proposed through the measurement of the selected KPIs taken in nominal situations and further when new functions are implemented.
• Description of main concerns with respect to current operations.
• Definition of preliminary performance indicators.

All the activities of this WP have been included in Deliverable 2.1. “Task and need analysis”. The delivery of the final version was done on 9th December, including all the comments from Topic Manager.

WP 3. Development and run of test scenarios

The main goal of this WP was to collaborate in the definition of test scenarios, ensuring that they are feasible for airlines and their current mode of operation, and to validate such scenarios with flight crews on active service through simulation techniques using E-OCVM methodology.

VALORIE’s Consortium and Topic Manager decided to address the following functions for the Operational Validation:
• Multi-Criteria Departure Procedure: this function will be assessed by means of Simulation sessions.
• Adaptive Increased Glide Slope: this function will be assessed by means of Simulation sessions.

The main activities performed were the following:
• Discussion with Topic Manager of expectations and objectives of the Operational Scenarios.
• Initiation of a collaborative work with Topic Manager for the development of the assessment scenarios
• Initiation of a Validation Strategy and Methodology.

Description of benefits coming from the change related to efficiency, maturity, performances, value
for airlines, etc., are the followings:
Environmental objective Estimation of the expected benefit
Noise reduction -2dB / reference by procedure
CO2 emissions reduction -15% / reference during climb phase (<3000ft)
NOx emissions reduction any reduction, to assess

Two simulation sessions were performed in the Topic Manager's Office. Each simulation campaign was initiated by a general briefing and was finished by a general debriefing about the exercises, the MCDP and AIGS function, etc. Every day, a daily briefing was organised to detail the activities to carry out during the day.

Three pilots, from SLOT and AVIAPRO, participated in the simulations and the tool used to obtain the information related to the MCDP and AIGS functions was questionnaires provided to the pilots, concerning the workload that new functions produced in their operational tasks.

All the WP3 objectives were realised in the “Deliverable 3.1 MCDP Detailed Scenarios” and in the “Deliverable 3.2. A-IGS Detailed Scenarios”.

WP 4. Development and run of test scenarios

The goal of this work package was to understand and to analyse the results of the validation exercises done in WP3, so that a complete and comprehensive assessment of the novel aircraft operation methods developed in SGO-ITD, for the addressed functions was performed. Conclusions and recommendations for coming phases were provided as part of the analysis.

The following project management activities have been performed during the reporting period:
• Analysis of qualitative data from questionnaires, debriefing sessions and personal interviews;
• Analysis of quantitative data, if recorded by simulator;
• Statistics of collected data to support the conclusions and recommendations;
• Definition of the level of significance and quality of the results;

The results and outcomes coming from the execution of the on-site simulations were reaffirmed and improved in Workshops or by means of ratification process in order to involve more operational staff in a cost-effective manner. The results were explained to operational experts in the WS and they gave their feedback and were be able to modulate and even increase the effect of the simulation results. This ratification process will be based on Gaming Technique.

Such internal validation activities were conducted in Hungary (SLOT) in order to maximise the participation of operational staff in a cost-effective manner.
All the WP4 objectives were realised in the “Deliverable 4.1 Assessment analysis”.

WP 5. Operational Validation

This WP was conceived as a transversal support to all project phases and other WPs, and its main purpose is to ensure that the project is aligned with airline mode of operation from a purely operational point of view provided by airline experience staff. The main activities performed during the reporting period were related to detailing the composition and the profiles of the supporting team for each Simulation Run. These requirements were reported in D5.1 and D5.2 “Flight Crew Profiles”.

In these documents were described the requirements for choosing the pilots that were presented in the simulations and the description of such a selection process, and what were the parameters to have successful simulations:
• Long experience in wide aircraft operation.
• Crew Resource Management (CRM) training experience was suitable for the execution of the tests and for answering the validation questionnaires.
• Experience in international cooperation, teamwork and research, and development projects programmes.

Potential Impact:
Expected impacts

The project will contribute to the current work of the SGO: The task and need analysis of the mission preparation and departure management prepares by the involvement of active flight crew and ground personnel will result a more focused analysis applicable to the context of ECO-take off and ECO cruise. The consortium members will help the developers of SGO with their extensive range of operational insight. The validation of the scenarios will be done by active flight crew members, ATC and ground personnel provided by the consortium. This will help the SGO by getting a clear view about the current operational processes of different airlines, companies. The consortium can also help in the selection of the scenarios to be validated on the basis of its wide range experience in validation and practical knowledge on operations. The consortium will be able to delegate 6 crews for 2 full day sessions to participate on the validation exercises. The members will contribute to the analysis of the validated scenarios.

Dissemination and/or exploitation of project results

The results of the project will not be disseminated to the public unless SGO doesn’t require it else. Topic Manager requests to perform a low profile related to dissemination activities, due to the critical issue of the matters involved in the project. The periodic reports prepared by the work packages leaders will inform SGO and Clean Sky about the progress of the project.

Management of intellectual property

Intellectual property rights (IPR) will be governed by the Consortium Agreement (CA) that will be signed by the members of the consortium upon award of a contract by Clean Sky. The standard rules in the EC contract will be implemented without restriction: The ‘VALORIE’ project builds on the pre-existing knowledge and know-how of the partners. In general, all of the intellectual property rights, documentation and source code related to the partners' pre-existing knowledge and know-how will need to be declared, will remain the property of the partner who owns them and will only be used for which access rights have been granted. The allocation of property and rights of use of the knowledge and know-how developed jointly by the partners during the course of the project (Foreground IP – FIP) will have to be made available to all partners in the project under the conditions outlined in the Consortium Agreement. To avoid compromising other forms of intellectual property protection, the CA will specify that all publications, press releases and other forms of dissemination material will have to be screened for information that could compromise the IP-protection process and sanctioned by the Project Co-ordinator, following legal advice, the withholding of all data that could potentially compromise IP-protection for a defined period of time of up to three years. Potential IP will be identified through the work package leaders in their progress reports.

List of Websites:
Not applicable. Dissemination activities were to be performed directly by the Topic Manager due to the sensibility the matters developed in the project and beacause they wanted to control the external exposure of the Project.