RPAS for Manned Flight Contingency Management

It is anticipated that the reduced crew operations contingency management concept will require the ATM system accommodation of flights transitioning from a routine manned flight to a flight with limited on-board human action and the management of the flight thereafter. The research must address the management of the transition from manned flight to a (completely or partially) remotely piloted flight from the air traffic management perspective, and the management of the flight until it lands safely in a dedicated aerodrome as soon as possible, rather than on mission completion.

The research should consider how concepts, procedures and technologies from development in RPAS integration could support this activity. Different levels of airborne support function (human monitoring, alerting, crosscheck/confirmation management, auto-emergency aircraft control) may be considered.

Consortia submitting proposals(s) for this topic must have human factors in the cockpit expertise and air traffic control human factors expertise. The research may include mock-up real-time simulations involving pilots, remote pilots and controllers. The research must focus on the ATM aspects only and in the manned to ground-managed contingency management only; research into the wider reduced crew operations concepts is explicitly excluded (note that this is considered in all projects researching the future ATM system).

Research in this topic will develop the procedures for the management of the contingency of an aircraft flown by a single pilot needing ground control support. The concept will contribute to the safety of the operations currently conducted with two crew members that are expected to be conducted by one crew member only, and also enhanced the safety of those flight operations that are today conducted by a single crew member.

The reduced crew operations contingency management enhances the safety of flight operations with a single pilot.