Digital Aviation - The Future of Flight
March 3rd 2022, Written by Matt Banham.
To make the most of the economic opportunities of future flight – with all kinds of autonomous drones going about their business, as well as the traditional aircraft with pilot and crew – we need to use our airspace efficiently and safely. And that means getting on top of huge amounts of data, showing what’s flying where.
The problem is, today’s technology used to coordinate and manage aviation is distinctly last-century. Information systems used by many airports, airlines and air traffic controllers predate the Internet, but they’re still the basis of the aviation world. New technology is out there, but the aviation industry hasn’t adapted to it. It’s a world that’s “hermetically sealed”, insulated from the internet and all its threats. So that’s a big challenge to new players in aviation who have embraced the cloud computing offerings of Microsoft or Amazon, and operate their equipment using public 4G/5G connectivity. Outdated and unreliable technology is a drag on the existing aviation industry. A Cranfield study has estimated that 60 percent of flight delays that aren’t weather-related are due to failures in handling data. In this day and age, consumer expectations couldn’t be higher and IT failures, often causing chaos at busy Airports are inexcusable.
The Fly2Plan project was born from recognising that a transformation is needed. Working with traditional aviation companies such as Heathrow, British Airways, and NATS (the UK air traffic control company), we’ve demonstrated how a new system-of-systems for aviation data could replace the one that has developed piecemeal over decades of human-controlled flight: a reliable, more efficient new system that would be much easier to scale for the autonomous flights of the future. Together with the new entrants and startups flying drones on a regular basis, such as Altitude Angel and Consortiq, the team have taken a fresh perspective at the challenges.
Under TEKTowr’s technical leadership, the Fly2Plan project shows how cloud infrastructure and blockchain technology can blend to result in airspace being managed more securely for all forms of users; a decentralised system means there’s no single, central critical point that can fail, or be attacked. And there’s even an environmental angle – by using cloud infrastructure, we can eliminate the need for industry to run their own big, power-hungry data centres. We have taken SITA (the airline’s global networks provider) and IBS Software (Heathrow’s airport database provider) on a journey of product development to make FlightChain suitable for deployment in the ecosystem – we’ve shown how Hyperledger Fabric, with some changes to its default consensus algorithm, a new identity and access management concept, and containerisation can deploy a global-scale data ecosystem for the soon-to-come exponential increase in users taking to the air. Together with a governance work stream looking at all matters relating, insurance, liabilities alignment of interests, we’ve built a model that bridges the generational divide of aviation companies born before and after the internet.
Our cybersecurity and AI researchers in Oxford and Cranfield Universities have shown how modernising can assure autonomy with accountable and traceable decisions. And our experts in modern aviation data exchange standards in Rockport Software and Cirium have shown how the technology complements the global SWIM concept. The Civil Aviation Authority had this to say:
“Fly2Plan have collaborated extremely well with the CAA throughout FFC Phase 2, especially around the cyber security aspects of their innovation. Collaborating with the Fly2Plan project is helping to mature the CAA's regulatory readiness to tackle cyber-threats that future, unique innovation may bring. We look forward to the outcomes of the research and development phase of Fly2Plan”
Ultimately, the Fly2Plan project is about making the most of a rare opportunity. What we’re trying to bring about is not just a periodic asset refresh which leaves the underlying ways of working unchanged. We have a once-in-a-generation chance to improve things fundamentally. If we don’t come together as an ecosystem, we’ll miss the opportunity to improve. This is where Innovate UK funding comes in – this is beyond any individual organisation acting alone, and we’re close to revealing the results of the research. We’ll soon show how new technology can preserve sovereignty and privacy, increase reliability and accessibility to the ecosystem, with this all achieved at a far lower operating cost – all of which are vital attributes for new, autonomous forms of flight as well as airlines. As the Future Flight Phase 2 ends, look out for the final report.
This blog was written by Matt Banham, TEKTowr’s CTO & Founder. With over 25-years experience developing software, hardware solutions within photonics, telecoms, aviation, air traffic management and UK Government. Managed projects circa £100M. Have been on boards of 5-startups. Won Gold Engineering Award from National Air Traffic Service for leadership of iFACTS
