ESA title

Aviation & RPAS

Aviation and Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are domains with tremendous potential for the deployment of space-based services alongside traditional infrastructures. The aviation industry has since long been a pioneer user of space-based solutions (e.g. navigation via satellite, GNSS-based flight procedures). Space-based services are able to offer exceptional capabilities to deal with increasing challenges, such as air traffic congestion, greener, safer and more effective trajectories as well as fleet management. The development of RPAS also faces some unique challenges, such as flight in unsegregated airspace, which are gradually being solved on the technological as well as regulatory level. This opens the way to some exciting new service opportunities, such as unmanned geological surveying and monitoring of infrastructure, all providing clear benefits to society as a whole.

DECISIONX:NETZERO

Status date: 13 March 2024

SATAVIA is reducing the climate impact of flying by mitigating the warming effect from the clouds aircraft make and enabling airlines to claim carbon credits as an incentive. Globally, aircraft contrails trap heat in the atmosphere and increase aviation’s climate impact by over 30%, contributing to global warming. From 2025 the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) will require airlines to report this impact. 

SATAVIA’s technology provides atmospheric intelligence to change flight plans to avoid  contrail-forming conditions. The mitigated climate impact is verified by SATAVIA and converted into tradable units by a patented method with the backing of Gold Standard, a major carbon accreditation platform.
 

Samplifly

Status date: 14 February 2024

SAMPLIFLY is a fast, integrated, and sustainable drone-based express transportation service design to carry different types of samples for industrial companies. SAMPLIFLY is able to operate in highly industrialised areas such as large harbours.

5G Drone Safety Module

Status date: 14 February 2024

Currently drones are not electronically visible, and it is not possible to determine accountability of a drone without searching and hoping you can find the operator. The proposed activity for the ESA Kick-Start project is to solve the issue of electronically identifying and tracking of drones.

AirTracks

Status date: 08 January 2024

AirTracks is a flexible and cost-efficient Air Navigation Information Service for enhanced aircraft safety during approach and departure at small and medium aerodromes which do not have any aeronautical surveillance system (e.g. Radars). Airtracks combines various aircraft surveillance information (ADS-B, Mode-S, etc) in the vicinity of an airfield. The information can be visualized on a web-based display, showing the relevant/customized ancillary information layers in a user-friendly way e.g. flight plan, aeronautical charts, meteorological information as well as safety related notifications to aircraft pilots (NOTAMS).

AlertSat Portal

Status date: 26 December 2023

The AlertSat satellite constellation is to deliver Alerts directly to its users, through AlertSat Portal - when critical information has been detected and there is still time to act upon it.

UVFDR

Status date: 05 December 2023

The universal virtual flight data recorder (UVFDR) is a vendor-agnostic, non-exclusive data repository, providing flight data including Global Aeronautic Distress and Safety System (GADSS) functions from day-to-day aviation operations to users in near real time.

GIP4 Smart Airports

Status date: 19 September 2023

Fourteen million flights are expected in 2035 in Europe. To increase airport capacity and efficiency, optimisation at every step must be carried on. GIP4SmartAirports projects aims at minimizing rotation time and smoothing real-time operations. Space technologies can be a valuable asset to support surveillance and safety, and help airport manager to maintain high quality and complete knowledge of their assets.

CRUISE

Status date: 19 September 2023

CRUISE intents is to design, develop and validate a CyberSec Test Range for UAS/RPAS. This technological framework combining ICT, EO and SATCOM, will be located in the Grottaglie Airport (Italy), a facility that experiments RPAS and studies the integration of UAS in non-segregated airspace. It will offer the overall assessment of vulnerability and resilience of UAS with respect to cyber-attacks.

MWS-A

Status date: 11 September 2023

MWS-A is a new weather nowcasting service for airports with high spatial and temporal resolution. The service combines real-time positions and predicted trajectory data of aircraft, and high resolution nowcasts of the motion and evolution of observed severe weather phenomena. Using these data the MWS-A service engine derives predictions of upcoming encounters of the weather phenomena and aircraft within up to 40 minutes time window in the future.

Proteus

Status date: 16 May 2023

Proteus builds on the success of the SEDDCR project and introduces a significantly increased operating area by leveraging novel space technology such as Iridium NEXT. Integrating with the NHS Highlands, Skyports is delivering to six medical facilities where drone deliveries facilitated by space technology has the potential to significantly enhance patient care. 

PLATIN

Status date: 30 April 2023

The aim of PLATIN is to develop a satcom-enabled platform to support flight operations in real-time (aircraft manufacturers’ flight tests, science flights, UAV surveillance flights). This service is a major evolution of the already existing PLANET service. Innovations in PLATIN are focusing on the integration of a new generation of Satcom (Iridium Certus) allowing new applicative services such as video/high-resolution images transmission or bulk telemetry thanks to higher throughputs.

oneTcall

Status date: 20 March 2023

No GSM coverage? You are on a plane or ship and you need to receive an important call or to make an important call? No problem: with oneTcall you can continue to use your mobile phone and your telephone number without changing your user experience and without any limitation.

Thanks to Satellite you can have IP coverage everywhere in the World and also in Mobility. With OneTCall + IP via Satellite you can have also your Mobile Phone working and keep using your telephone number.

Easy for the customer. No additional infrastructure required for the Operator.

OneTCall is perfect to provide seamless voice coverage also on board of Airplanes and Ships.

OneTcall is a patented service.

DOCS-2

Status date: 15 March 2023

Using civil aircraft to create constellations for providing high spatial & temporal Earth observation data and telecommunication services; a most ecological constellation re-using the most reliable platform.

TrackSat

Status date: 15 March 2023

Development of a standalone drone tracking service capable of transmitting its position over 4G network during normal flight, addressing drone flight regulations. In case of a crash, the drone will use satellite IoT connectivity to send its latest known position.

DroSecMa

Status date: 13 March 2023

The fence no longer defines the perimeter.” Exponential increase in capability and reduction in cost has made drones a truly disruptive technology. Their capabilities may be leveraged for significantly improved surveillance and data collection but that also
represent a significant and evolving threat. DroSecMa leverages the capabilities of drones while providing real-time threat mitigation.

Space Augmented UAM

Status date: 14 February 2023

Space Augmented UAM aims to determine the feasibility of a “Space Augmented” service enabling cities and regions to conduct U-Space integration assessment utilizing economic, technical and environmental simulations for predictive assessment considering the individuality of each city to generate a self-sustainable Urban Air Mobility ecosystem.

GIP 4 Smart Airports

Status date: 05 December 2022

The GIP 4 Smart Airports solution provides all actors of airport ground operations (e.g. airlines, airport, handlers) with better, accurate, real-time information about ongoing turnaround operations. GIP 4 Smart Airports offers a non-intrusive, bird-eye view of airport activities, without intruding and disrupting current working practices of airport teams, while making real-time information available to everyone.

HOPE

Status date: 21 November 2022

Human safety is a critical factor that defines the iGRC (intristic Ground Risk Class) of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems operations. The HOPE project aims to integrate various source data, including satellite data (SatEO), to forecast human mobility over time, with the help of artificial intelligence and provide the derived information to operators&authorities.

MEANDAIR

Status date: 11 October 2022

Meandair provides pilots with relevant weather data. Before flight, a plan can be registered in the application and the necessary weather information will be downloaded. By pushing the flight button, just before take-off, the Meandair weather information travels along with pilots. Updates of the latest weather can be also downloaded during flight using the SATCOM communication devices. The weather data are also available to 3rd party application developers, behind easy to use programming interface.

DECISIONX

Status date: 27 September 2022

SATAVIA is an AI software and data company simplifying decision-making in aircraft flight operations and maintenance to make aviation smarter and greener.

DECISIONX is a cloud-based analytics platform combining global flight data with atmospheric data to perform environmental exposure assessments for aircraft and buildings. This enables better decision-making in condition monitoring, predictive maintenance and aircraft performance.

DRONEAI

Status date: 19 September 2022

The DRONEAI project aims at providing an integrated approach to provide a close to real time assessment solutions for disaster relief and humanitarian interventions. It consists of a complete and state-of-the-art solution relying on Artificial Intelligence including a set of tools to enable its application in a time of tension and with high level of flexibility. DRONEAI is combined as an edge processing solution in HITEC’s Nomadic Satellite Communication (NoSaCo) terminal, it creates a unique solution to support the on-site analytics.

SWAIR

Status date: 30 June 2022

The aviation industry is becoming increasingly dependent on the GNSS-based technologies, at the same time being aware of its vulnerabilities, including those originating from Space Weather. SWAIR responds to that reality with a system providing GNSS and Space Weather monitoring and performance assessment products, compliant with international regulations and recommendations.

FLAMES

Status date: 28 April 2022

With the FLAMES project, the consortium of Unisphere, Matternet and Nordic Unmanned demonstrated how simulation technologies can be used to increase the automation of drone flights in an urban and maritime environment.

For the first time, high-resolution weather data, the Copernicus digital elevation model, aircraft performance models and trajectory simulations were combined to create a digital twin of drone flights. This forms the basis for automated flight planning, which is offered as a SaaS service. Moreover, the validated simulation technology is the basis for autonomous flight operations in the future and enables a reliable transfer of pilot knowledge into software. As a result, a broader customer base will be able to use drone technology.

FB Eye

Status date: 13 July 2021

FB Eye – acronym of Fire-Bombing Eye – is a commercial initiative to improve the firefighting operations using innovative space-based and ground-based technologies.

FB Eye is an innovative platform-as-a-service commercial provision of integrated satellite/airborne Comms/Nav support to the precision water bombing of large wildfires. 

FB Eye will provide to waterbomber’s pilot a near real time information map with precise geographical location of most radiating fire hotspots, being the most effective release target to extinguish rapidly the fire.

4S Safety of Future Transport

Status date: 13 April 2021

4S Safety of Future Transport is a study undertaken within the frame of the 4S Strategic Programme Line that aims at identifying a list of applications that will use highly innovative and secure  Satellite Communication systems to support safety critical services within the transportation industry (Aviation, Maritime and Railway). 

AgeSpot

Status date: 07 April 2021

AGESPOT is a completely new technological development based on satellite earth observation data offering services that allow access to precise data on WHERE and HOW MANY people, under consideration of their ages and socio-economic attributes, currently live and will likely live in the FUTURE.

airUTM

Status date: 30 March 2021

airUTM is an Unmanned Traffic Management system that allows for equitable use of airspace for both manned and unmanned aircraft in Africa. We enable large numbers of drones to safely and securely conduct operations in compliance with aviation regulations.

ASTROCAST

Status date: 25 March 2021

Astrocast is developing an advanced Nanosatellite network for the Internet of things (IoT). 

SEDDCR

Status date: 18 February 2021

In the SEDDCR project, space-enabled delivery drones were used to assist the National Health Service (NHS) in rural Scotland in the fight against COVID-19. The delivery drones carried critical COVID-19 pathology tests and related medicine between hospitals and medical practices, ensuring that the NHS had access to a fast, frequent and reliable medical logistics system.

ACABAS

Status date: 04 February 2021

Using civil aircraft as a platform to collect AIS data, complementing existing terrestrial and satellite solutions, enhancing AIS data availability.

AMMO

Status date: 04 December 2020

Ascend offers two distinct disruptive services that cover all types and sizes of airports, from the smallest to the largest ones. These services offer analysis of Earth Observation data for safety monitoring of the airport surroundings, and combine it with a cloud and browser based management system. Thereby the AMMO services are supporting the airport operators who are asked by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to comply with the regulation EU 139/2014 on aerodrome safety. 

WAMMO (AMMO CCN#1)

Status date: 24 June 2020

The WAMMO project, a continuation of Ascend XYZ’s AMMO project, aims to expand the service with ground radar data. Airports will be able to visualize bird activity and identify the associated areas of interest. Radar data and correlated EO data from multiple airports will be used to produce statistical models for airports not equipped with a radar and with similar habitats.

STAP-ULD

Status date: 04 May 2020

STAP ULD-Watcher provides a new and patented solution for monitoring and tracking airfreight container (ULD) in all airports of the world. Supported by IATA regulations the ULD-Watcher will help to avoid delays, lost baggage or goods and will reduce insurance cost dramatically and increase general profit for the customers of STAP.

SkyLiberty CCN#1

Status date: 20 March 2020

Through the SkyLiberty project, ESNAH has created a service associated to a set of different products to support pilots and other aviation stakeholders in the performance of safe and effective flights.

Originally designed for aviation, the SkyLiberty service has proven to be useful in several other domains (e.g. boats or trucks tracking).

The service is composed of several modules named SkyUser (mobile application and web for pilots), SkyOperator (web application for operators, i.e. persons or entities owning and renting one or more aircrafts to pilots) and SkyLink (tracking device and satellite modem), which have different functionalities tailored to the needs of various stakeholders.

SkyLiberty

Status date: 07 February 2020

SkyLiberty is a new service based on a software product, which aims to improve the preparation and the performance of flight navigations. It offers a full set of new concepts and services for student pilots, beginner and advanced pilots, aircraft operators, airline companies and passengers

Services enabled by HAPS

Status date: 22 January 2020

HAPS platforms are evolving in the stratosphere to conduct earth observation. They provide large-scale images as a support to decision-making processes in domains like meteorology, security, safety, natural resource inventories, climate change or prevention and monitoring of natural disasters. They provide high versatility, near real-time information and high revisit frequency on their targets

HAPS4ESA

Status date: 17 January 2020

A roadmap for combining High Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS) and satellites for ‘persistent surveillance’ monitoring scenarios.

 

ADS-B Xplore

Status date: 14 January 2020

ADS-B Xplore elaborates innovative service ideas targeting:

  • Big data applications based on air traffic surveillance data
  • A global communication solution accessible for every aircraft to support safety and flight route optimization
  • Safe coexistence of manned and unmanned air traffic

KORE

Status date: 07 January 2020

KORE improves UK and international agronomists’ and farmers’ crop management by exploiting new precision agriculture techniques to target inputs and increase crop yields.

KORE utilises remote sensing and satellite navigation techniques to survey fields easily and cost-effectively.

KORE provides simple interpretations of complex information on crop growth and crop health.

KORE replaces a successful, proven on-line agronomy service, EssentialsMap. 

Services enabled by HAPS (Thales Alenia Space)

Status date: 14 November 2019

The need for effective surveillance covering large surface areas around the world is expected to boost the market for HAPS.

The study objectives are:

  • to define services where HAPS can play a key role in the short-term, mainly for maritime and border surveillance, support to ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Recognition) activities and emergency response applications,
  • to technically and economically assess and characterise the previous applications and services complemented by satellites.

Services Enabled by HAPS (Unisphere)

Status date: 02 September 2019

Within the context of satellites, terrestrial infrastructure and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), HAPS are a new platform offering unique advantages, but also complement existing services. Three major HAPS applications have been analyzed within this feasibility study. The concept of “HAPS as a Service” (HaaS) has been introduced and its unique requirements to highly automated flight management were detailed. A follow-up demonstration project with the focus on flight management has emerged from this feasibility study.

ALBA-TROSS

Status date: 10 April 2019

Alba Orbital is working to develop satellite applications which utilize each aircraft’s unique ‘Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast’ (ADS-B) signature. ADS-B signals contain data on flight path, and flight weather conditions, and can be used to enhance global weather forecasts, verify aircraft carbon emissions, and aid in Mayday scenarios, especially when fused with other satellite and ground based data-sets. 

AUDROS

Status date: 02 April 2019

The “Autonomous Drone Services in the CBRNe operations” (AUDROS) Feasibility Study assessed the technical feasibility and commercial viability of space-based services in combination with the emerging RPAS technologies which become a game changer in many service domains to improve the monitoring, early warning, surveillance and reaction on CBRNe events and threats.

 

NG Aviation – Smart Airports

Status date: 28 March 2019

Proposed system serves as a platform for Airside area management based on ICAO and EUROCONTROL legislative as a support for satellite navigation.

AIME Aeronautical Information Management Environment software platform enables to create and share digital aeronautical data including the temporal warning messages (Digital NOTAM) in AIXM 5.1 format.

HARP

Status date: 08 March 2019

For safe operations, commercial aircraft have to be able to communicate with air traffic control centres at all times. In remote areas such as the polar regions, communication is by HF shortwave radio, which may be severely disrupted by space weather events. The provision of state-of-the-art services for HF communication management is covered by the HARP project.

CMS

Status date: 19 December 2018

Crisis Happens! Are you prepared to save your company?

RAPSODY

Status date: 19 November 2018

RAPSODY, a project led by TEKEVER, will demonstrate the use of remotely piloted aerial systems (RPAS) in a wide area maritime context, through the execution of search & rescue and pollution monitoring missions. The missions will be executed in near-real scenarios over the Atlantic Ocean. The Satcom-enabled RPAS will be fully prepared and customized to perform these maritime missions, including the integration of specific payloads and the usage of specially tailored mission-oriented data fusion, data compression and automatic feature recognition and identification algorithms.

LUMEN

Status date: 28 August 2018

LUMEN provides a fully integrated end-to-end solution for real time monitoring and critical situation management with medium sized RPAS that can operate beyond line of sight.

The service is demonstrated with two specific use cases representative for the target market: flood extend mapping and maritime coastal monitoring.

SAGAS

Status date: 20 June 2018

The SAGAS feasibility study successfully completed the investigation of the viability of Multi-Source ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast) integrated services, bringing the terrestrial ADS-B (ADS-B-TER) and space based ADS-B (ADS-B-SAT) technologies with added-value from  relevant ground and space based data-fusion and advance analytics for delivering the “best of truth” aircraft and airspace surveillance capabilities and value-added applications for the target markets and use scenarios.

Big data applications to boost preparedness and response to migration

Status date: 25 May 2018

The study aims at assessing the technical feasibility and economic viability of services enhancing human migration crisis management, through the use of Big Data solutions and RPAS.

DOCS

Status date: 20 March 2018

Re-using civil aircraft to create constellations for providing high spatial & temporal Earth observation data and telecommunication services; a most ecological constellation re-using the most reliable platform.

DAEDALUS

Status date: 13 December 2017

The DAEDALUS service offered by Satavia aims to assist airlines, air navigation service providers, and aircraft and aeroengine manufacturers to increase operational safety and efficiency, and increase situational awareness of stakeholders on aircraft and the ground. Key objectives include in-flight detection and forecasting of a range of aviation hazards, and analytics to support flight operations.

DART

Status date: 09 November 2017

The DART service aims to offer affordable medium distance transportation capabilities to Polish professionals as primary target market. DART will be based on the use of light aircraft located all over the country, by exploiting GNSS-based approach procedures and remote AFIS services. It ambitions to be much cheaper and flexible than current air-taxi like services.

Uam®

Status date: 27 July 2017

e2E intends to offer more affordable data communication services into niche markets currently underserved from existing infrastructure or where traditional satellite delivery is too expensive. The core of the service concept builds on two key technologies that have been developed with small airborne IDP networks in mind that incudes RPAS, HAPS and small satellites.

DeSIRE II

Status date: 27 June 2017

DeSIRE II, Second Element of the ESA EDA RPAS Demonstration Roadmap, aims at developing and demonstrating a service based on a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) flying in Beyond Radio Line of Sight (BRLOS) using a dual satcom link supporting Command and Control  (C2) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) functions.

The project also aims at demonstrating to the users the potential of RPAS complemented by satellite applications (Satcom, Satnav and Earth Observation) for developing new services for operations.

Project objectives are pursued by means of a real flight campaign using Piaggio Aerospace P.1HH RPAS, and complemented by simulation and emulation activities.

ArTeK

Status date: 20 June 2017

ArTeK aims at developing an innovative, effective and sustainable service offered to Properties managers to have a complete and systematically updated view and enhanced awareness of the state of conservation of immovable Cultural Properties and to support their management and fruition. ArTeK integrated service builds on space assets (earth observation, navigation and satellite communication) as well as additional technologies (drones, on site equipment, etc.) in relation to specific user needs.

STEAM

Status date: 04 May 2017

The objective of this study is to investigate the technical feasibility, financial/non-financial viability and sustainability of a future service aiming at measuring the amounts of sulphur oxides components ejected by vessels travelling inside the Emission Control Areas (ECAs) as defined by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

 

RPAS Intelligent Parcel Delivery

Status date: 11 January 2017

In the advent of the remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS), the Unmanned Parcel Delivery (UPD) project seeks to utilise RPAS and satellite technology to establish a fast, safe and secure UPD service to customers in remote and hard-to-reach locations.

BIOSCOPE FS

Status date: 05 July 2016

BIOSCOPE investigated the technical and economical viability of a vegetation monitoring system based on the integrated use of satellites and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).

SASISA

Status date: 25 January 2016

SASISA (Small-Aircraft Service for Instant Situational Awareness) supplies airborne situational awareness support for civil protection operations in the early phases of disaster response. Remote sensing results have often only been accessible after several days. With delivery of georeferenced imagery via satellite broadband during flight and value-added mapping products within a day, SASISA offers transformational change to European emergency management services.

CGWay

Status date: 04 December 2015

An initial study into the feasibility of implementing a high throughput satellite gateway in equipment containers including the use of a highly innovative approach to the antenna using multiple smaller antennas.

PLANET2

Status date: 09 December 2014

PLANET2 aims at providing business and regional aviation with in-flight information updates on weather conditions and hazards, while contributing at the same time to the observation of the atmosphere thanks to in-situ measurements sent from the aircraft to the weather agencies.

DeSIRE

Status date: 30 May 2013

The DeSIRE (Demonstration of Satellites enabling the Insertion of RPAS in Europe) demonstration project is a joint ESA-EDA initiative aimed at demonstrating the safe insertion of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in non-segregated airspace using satellites capabilities for RPAS command and control, ATC communications and Mission data transfer to ground, in order to satisfy the needs of potential user communities. The demonstration will be carried out in Spain through several flights using a RPAS (Heron 1) providing airborne maritime surveillance services to the Spanish Users involved in the project.

Birdstrike

Status date: 20 May 2010

The present activity is concerned with reducing the risk to civil aviation of an accident in the airport airspace environment as a result of bird strike.