As aviation begins to accelerate out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is increasingly clear that digitalising the industry must be a top priority. To that end, Cranfield University and Inmarsat have collaborated on a report examining the intersection of connectivity and aviation, putting forward their view in a roadmap for the five-year, five-to-ten-year, and ten-plus year time horizons.
We sat down with Kurt Weidemeyer, senior vice president for technology at Inmarsat Aviation, to delve into the drivers and dynamics behind the predictions for each of these three time horizons.
Several quick wins are on the table
Within commercial aviation, Weidemeyer points to the flight deck as a potential quick win, and particularly to “the adoption of electronic flight bags, which we should see within the next couple of years, and certainly within five years. If an airline has not already moved to this then it should be top of their agenda, as it provides instant access to a whole range of cost-saving benefits.”
Meanwhile, “passenger experience is at the top of the agenda for airlines,” Weidemeyer says. “The experience begins before the journey has even begun, and personalisation is critical to that experience, whether that’s helping them find their way to the airport, or navigating through it once they arrive using personalised wayfinding within airlines’ branded apps.”
COVID-19 has created the urgent need for digital health record verification, and in the short to medium term at least this need will continue — indeed, it may well continue longer, or even expand. A consequence of many passengers’ newfound familiarity and experience uploading tests and vaccination information to the systems from airlines and their partners is that this might be extended further.
Uploading QR-enabled certification, or even working in the backend with digital verification systems, could cross over not just to providing proof of pre-COVID health requirements like yellow fever vaccinations, but to electronic travel authorisations, visas, proof of onward travel and other requirements previously reviewed at the airport.
“In the cabin,” he notes, “I’d say the quickest win is onboard passenger digital experience. It not only has an impact on improving passengers’ experience, which we know is critical, but it also presents unrivalled revenue generation opportunities — and airlines can’t afford to lose out on either.”
Passengers’ own devices are critical to that experience. At the most basic level, that might be by streaming content directly. But integrating them with inflight entertainment systems to allow control, selection and personalisation of both content and other ancillary revenue opportunities is already beginning.
Fixing air traffic management is a must
Crucial to commercial passenger aviation, Weidemeyer says, is air traffic management, and particularly “fixing the impending capacity crunch.”
Specifically, he notes, ATM needs Internet Protocol (IP) enablement. “IP is the fundamental backbone of modern communication architecture, yet in aviation today it isn’t. For it to be successful in air transport, IP needs to be ubiquitously available — not just over land with VHF Datalink or used only over oceanic routes via satcom.”
“If we as an industry want to see the benefits of Trajectory Based Operations and green descents, which will enable more airspace capacity and less fuel burn, we must adopt common technologies globally that enable this and move forward from the reliance on voice comms and congested VHF,” Weidemeyer says.
One step in the right direction is the European Space Agency’s Iris project, part of the Single European Sky programme.
“With the Iris programme underway, we’d expect to see initial deployments of 4D trajectory based operations [PDF] within the next five years,” Weidemeyer says. “But to see advanced deployment, with full integration and synchronisation of flight information and data, we’re looking at closer to ten years. To go all the way on this, where full 4D deployment enables air traffic services to become a supervisory service, we’ll need more than a decade – but we’re hopeful that enough players in the industry will join us in seeing the enormous benefits, and help make it a reality sooner rather than later.”
Uncrewed and autonomous aviation systems are a key focus
Within the next five years, Weidemeyer predicts, a key focus will be on developing the initial set of use cases for uncrewed aviation. This might include remote delivery of medicines in rural and developing areas, further industrial operations, maintenance of infrastructure in hard-to-access areas, all the way through to preparations for sub-regional eVTOL passenger travel.
In this space, Weidemeyer says, “we would expect — and hope — to see the next five years focus on regulatory development. Rule-makers will need to create operating categories and regulations that support the variety of operating concepts that organisations are looking to bring to market.”
This is likely to present itself in a variety of uncrewed aviation traffic management regulatory tiers depending on the risk profile of the task. A light home delivery drone in a rural area has a different risk profile to one in a major city, which is different still from a UAV used inside the controlled environment of a maintenance hangar, or one used to inspect electricity pylons.
Within the five-to-ten-year window, Weidemeyer expects that the framework will have progressed to a point where regular operations can be carried out beyond visual line of sight, known within the industry as BVLOS.
Beyond ten years, he says, “we’d expect to see frequent cargo deliveries using common approved routes and passenger air taxis going into service — though the latter is likely to be single crewed initially.”
Starting now with sustainability is vital
But beyond many of these quicker wins, it’s also important to put time and effort into what Stephen Covey defines as ‘big rocks’: the challenges that don’t necessarily show the greatest immediate reward, but which will have the greatest impact.
“In terms of the biggest rock, it has got to be the rock we’re all stood on, planet earth,” Weidemeyer notes. “Sustainability must be considered as part of every decision, and this is going to be particularly tough for an industry fighting its way out of a global pandemic.”
In terms of technologies, aviation can break down this big and often impenetrable rock to focus on marginal gains in the short term, which combined can make a measurable difference. Sustainable aviation fuels, hydrogen power, electric aircraft, improved air traffic management, lower-carbon ground operations and more must all be part of the picture.
“To become an industry that is truly carbon neutral, we have to begin immediately,” Weidemeyer concludes, “and sustainability needs to be included in every aspect of every operation.”
Author: John Walton
Published 14th April 2022
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