eSAFE

eSAFE

The aim of the eSAFE project is the development of an automatic emergency flight control, including an emergency landing for aircrafts of the EASA CS23 class. This technology will be of great benefit, especially in case of technical problems or  the sudden inability of a pilot to operate a flight.

After activating the emergency button on board, an airfield with an approaching route under the consideration of dynamic air traffic data will be evaluated. The route of the flight, the switch to the landing configuration, the final approach and the landing itself occur fully automatically.

The emergency procedure is based on on-board equipment as a receiver, general equipment (DGNSS, METAR, NOTAM, etc.), sensors (inertial data, radar height) and a digital air traffic database.

An already existing fly-by-wire avionic platform is based on X-By-Wire (IST-PEIT Powertrain with Equipped Intelligent Technologies, FP6-SPARC Secure Propulsion using Advanced Redundant Control) is now being evaluated in three experimental airplanes from Daimler AG. This fly-by-wire platform provides the underlying groundwork for the flight test and the implementation of the “emergency landing- function”. In the framework of the FP7-project SAFAR (Small Aircraft Future Avionics Architectures), avionic-basis-functions on a Diamond DA42 have been implemented and validated. In the German LUVO IV joint research project FLY SMART, new avionic-functions based on these results will be realized and provided to the project eSAFE.

Besides the development of the emergency-function, the integration into the existing fly-by-wire platform and the validation by the flight test (DA42), the project also investigates the qualification and certification of the emergency system.