Flight safety given a boost
Aircraft safety has come a very long way since commercial airliners and other planes first took off. Yet mishaps still happen and the industry is keen to push safety measures to the maximum. The EU-funded project 'On-board active safety system' (Onbass) aimed to improve active safety principles for aviation and analyse their applicability. It investigated basic fault tolerant hardware elements in on-board active safety systems and worked on developing an improved software core for these systems. Onbass developed a theoretical model of flight risk and outlined rigorous system requirements for the realisation of a more effective passenger aircraft safety system (PASS). It created a conceptual design to develop the system software and prototype for on-board embedded hardware. Research conducted involved better use and simplification of flight data, as well as improved flight information processing and establishment of required performance/reliability levels for the active safety system. In parallel, the project team analysed the commercial and business aspects related to the PASS over the long term. Towards the end of the project, the team developed the profile of flight risk for commercial and general aviation, enabling operational risk analysis in real-time flight. It defined system requirements fully, completed software development, tested associated hardware successfully and demonstrated the overall system on board actual flights. The technology is expected to feature on aircraft within the EU, taking flight safety to the cutting edge.
