SESAR video – too much focus on problems, too little on solutions, misses CPDLC work already done
On 13/03/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The SESAR Joint Undertaking has produced a short video meant to explain the essence of the project. It is obviously destined for a lay audience and this has put limits on the amount of technical detail that can be described without the danger of losing people’s attention.
The story is framed by an SAS flight from Stockholm to Brussels as it happens to-day with hints here and there how it will be once SESAR has done its job. And this is where the video is a bit of a let-down. With most of the characters describing the current problems, the focus shifts from the future to the current fragmented environment that SESAR is meant to remedy. As such, the video becomes a bit like the scores of others in the past which were made for previous efforts to repair European air traffic management (remember EATCHIP?), little more than a list of existing grievances with rather vague hints as to how things will be better in the future.
It is not easy to make movies on complicated subjects for a lay audience but they should have been given a bit more credit for their intelligence and a bit more detail on how things will in fact be repaired.
It is obvious that a lot of the aircraft sequences were provided by Airbus which is fine except that seeing all those aircraft flying in Airbus house colors is not necessarily the right message in terms of Airbus’ wide customer base.
I am sure a lot of experts at EUROCONTROL, ARINC, the FAA and other organizations will shake their heads and may even grab a pen and write to the SJU when they hear the narrator say that Maastricht is testing Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC), “the first component of the data link communications that SESAR will develop” giving the impression that this is something new brought by SESAR. This is a particular let-down and I guess is nothing more than an unfortunate use of words in the script… but still. Not crediting the huge amount of international work already carried out is most regrettable.
All in all, I think this video does not do justice to what SASAR is and where it is going. Even if we consider that it is for a lay audience, it is not as good as it could and should be. Certainly the strange text about CPDLC could earn it a Worst Movie of the Season Award but let’s be kind. The video has good material in it and by refocusing things on the future and giving CPDLC credit where it is due, take two of this movie could even be enjoyable.
Check out the video here.
Is there a lesson for SESAR in the A400M?
On 24/02/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by pbn
In case you do not know, the A400M is the military transport Europe has been trying to put together for a few years now and which has recently managed to get airborne. In body anyway because the future of its spirit is far from assured. Why the military needed a new propeller driven heavy transport when they had Boeing’s C-17 already up and running is something of a puzzle… I guess someone somewhere must have thought a big collaborative project like this would be good for European industry.
The Airbus Military A400M
Well, they were absolutely right. The A400M project, beset by delays, incredible cost overruns and government meddling on an unprecedented scale, has shown all the weaknesses current European co-operation can master when States set their minds to it. True, this time the scenery was provided by the military but many of the parties involved have a civilian “face” also, so the outcome is of general interest.
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SESAR and multimedia
On 22/01/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The personal level visual communications facilities brought to us by modern technology have changed how we as individuals express ourselves and to an even higher degree how big companies talk to us. Traditional ads now sometimes resemble animated feature films and the on-screen safety briefing on some aircraft make us wonder whether we were watching a Pixar release and candidate for the aviation golden globe…
It is not surprising then that SESAR, the big European air traffic management research program, also makes full use of what multimedia has to offer…
Go to their multimedia gallery and you are greeted with video interviews (the latest just added is with Florian Guillermet, the Chief Program Officer), cute screensavers and even a number of wallpapers! These latter have also been added to recently so check them out if you fancy having the SESAR logo (and that of the EC and EUROCONTROL) lurk in the corner of your screen. To their credit, the logos are small and discreet.
I have heard people question the reasoning behind this multimedia drive. Personally I find it a new, refreshing way of keeping everyone aware of this important project, an approach to communications that is right where it should be these days.
SESAR will have plenty to communicate and they might as well do it in an enjoyable way.
Who is in charge here?
On 13/01/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by pbn
Those of us who have served the airline industry know full well that what may appear as a monolithic industry (all airlines fly aircraft after all, do they not?), is in fact a multitude of differing business models, interests, attitudes, readiness to invest in new things, inertia, vision and what have you. Even within the group of legacy carriers or the group of low cost folks, the diversity is immense.
In the past, the airline industry booked its most significant successes in influencing the political scene as well as air traffic management when it was able to speak with one voice. That voice on the world-wide stage used to be IATA. The most spectacular flops were booked when dissent in the family silenced the common voice. Just think of the Mode S Enhanced Surveillance debacle if you want to have proof.
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Who said being serious has to be boring?
On 08/01/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
In a refreshing new way, the SESAR JU seems to have cut the ties with the old fashioned way of communicating only in a somber and boring fashion. After updating their web site, they are now bringing us two SESAR theme screensavers and a number of wallpapers.
Who said being serious has to be boring?
I am not sure all the wallpapers are really suitable for the purpose, especially for those of us who keep a lot of stuff on the desktop. Some of the photos themselves are a bit too “busy” and finding things against that busy background becomes a tad difficult. But this is a personal thing and I find the initiative a very good one.
Screensaver 1 tells you the why...
But the two screensavers are really cute. One of them brings home some salient facts of the SESAR project and having all that data repeat on the screen while you drink your coffee is a good reminder why we are doing this in the first place.
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Staff associations officially involved in SESAR – essential but…
On 17/12/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by cleo
As made known by SESAR News 2, five major staff associations representing a wide range of professional operational and technical skills across the ATM domains (e.g. pilots, air traffic controllers and assistants, handling staff, flight and air traffic safety electronics engineers etc.) are currently signing framework contracts with the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) through EUROCONTROL for their participation in the SESAR work program.
The associations concerned are the Air Traffic Controllers European Union Coordination (ATCEUC), European Cockpit Association (ECA), European Transport Workers’ Association (ETF), International Federation of Air Traffic Safety Electronics Associations (IFATSEA), and the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA).
Their professional expertise is sought for the SJU work program regarding issues such as safety, security, and human factor aspects when developing and validating new procedures, methodologies, and technical elements. At the kick-off meeting on 4 December, representatives of the associations discussed with the SJU the key aspects of their future participation in order to finalize the more precise details during January/February 2010.
This is an important development since without the endorsement and support of controllers and pilots represented by these associations SESAR cannot be a success. However, a word of caution is in order here.
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The new SESAR web site
On 26/11/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
I guess it is a sign of the times that one of the measures of an organization’s maturity is the version number of its web site. Low numbers (say from 1 to 3) tend to be a real pain and it is usually only after version 5 that one is faced with a style, clarity and ease of finding things that rate a compliment.
The first version of the SESAR web presence was visibly an affair that had to be put together in a hurry and it was a real, classical version 1. But the designers of the new SESAR web presence have dispensed with the go-slow tradition and created something really nice for version 2.
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Military accepts the idea underlying the business trajectory
On 05/11/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
One of the most important paradigm shifts in the SESAR air traffic management operational concept of the future is the move from an airspace based approach to a trajectory based one. It would be a bit lengthy to explain the difference here (there will be a blog article on the subject soon) so let it suffice to say: trajectory based operations are the key to the required predictability and efficiency of the new system.
During the creation of the SESAR Concept of Operations (CONOPS) our military colleagues at first had some difficulty in accepting this new approach. After all, most military operations tend to require a huge piece of real estate that equates to airspace rather than trajectories.
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Still banging on an open door??
On 24/09/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
May be you will remember an earlier post in which we were querying why the Sesar JU wants to spend a bunch of money on test flights and other fun to find a way of tracking aircraft over the ocean. And this as a result of the tragic Air France accident earlier this year.
At the time we said that asking any good flight tracking company, like AirNav Systems would give them all the information they need instead of an expensive study, probably free… Afterwards the cost would only be the equipment that would need to go on some aircraft plus the fees to the company selected. But spending more than 30K up front is totally unnecessary.
Have a look at this picture. Traffic over the North Atlantic on a Thursday afternoon, updated every 45 seconds… The data field at the top show that it is an Alitalia flight, on the right hand side speed, heading, times… No, this is not what you get for 30K+… This is what you can have on your PC right now for a few bucks a month.
Zoom in and you get flight data displayed alongside the position symbols. Just like labels on radar. Even the simplest version of the software is able to track selected flights…
Still not convinced?
Standing all together… separately?
On 16/09/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Reading the upbeat communication from the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) announcing the arrival of the airspace users on board the project, it may be worthwhile to take a look at the composition of the new arrivals and start worrying… just a tad mind you but still. There are individual airlines, both big and small and associations ranging from giant IATA to IAOPA (much smaller but with significant influence) and a consortium coordinated by EBAA. Diversity is nice but who exactly will be the conductor of this orchestra?
In the past one of the strengths of the airspace users was in their ability to speak with a common voice. This common voice in Europe came from IATA (mainly on technical matters) and from AEA (on the political level). Achieving the common voice was not easy and sometimes downright impossible but at least while there was disagreement, no cacophony of diverse tunes was allowed to fill the auditorium.
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Major airlines, business & general aviation, associations on board of SESAR
On 15/09/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The SESAR Joint Undertaking, a unique public-private partnership in air traffic management research and development, has signed contracts with Air France & Régional, KLM, Iberia, Lufthansa Group including SWISS and LCAG, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, TAP Portugal, Novair, a consortium coordinated by EBAA including NETJET and Dassault Aviation, as well as IATA, and IAOPA to engage their technical experts in the SESAR programme. The SESAR Joint Undertaking is now poised to tackle its vital mission: to develop a user-driven, modernised and affordable Air Traffic Management system for Europe, which will prevent crippling congestion of the European sky and reduce the environmental impact of air transport.
Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents some 230 international airlines, commented: “SESAR needs to deliver results on the industry’s top priorities—safety, environmental responsibility and financial sustainability. It must also be completed on time and in-line with customer needs. Today’s agreement is important because it accelerates validation of future technologies with flight trials in real conditions.”
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Banging on an open door?
On 22/08/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) has just announced that they are launching a specific initiative on flight tracking in oceanic and remote areas. The call for tender (OPTIMI) is meant to select contractor(s) for the performance of a study and flight demonstrations – co-funded for a maximum amount of € 360.000 -aimed at demonstrating the feasibility to implement oceanic tracking services in the Atlantic at a reasonable cost and within a limited timeframe (2010).
The SESR JU was tasked to analyse the issue and provide recommendations on the way forward in response to the apparent lack of appropriate tracking over remote areas that came to light following the recent tragic accident over the South-Atlantic.
As I read this news in my office, one of the several computer screens was focused on the Pacific Ocean, showing the Western Coast of the US and the Hawaii Islands. All traffic was clearly visible and by pointing on any of the blips, I could immediately bring up corresponding, real-time flight data, including heading, level, speed, departure and destination aerodrome and the filed track was also presented.
Scrolling the map to the North Atlantic, as I briefly looked at traffic in and out of Paris, two questions came to mind.
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Scientific elite joins SESAR
On 18/08/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Twelve renowned scientists have been signed up to create the new Scientific Committee of the SESAR Joint Undertaking. The Committee will deal with all scientific aspects of the work programme and will focus on:
• the scientific analysis of SESAR from different angles: economics, human factors, statistics, mathematics, computer science, physics, technology;
• the liaison between SESAR and the academic and scientific communities across Europe including education of the future “SESAR interested engineers & scientists”; and
• the scientific value of the SESAR results.
The list of personalities is impressive and covers institutions situated all over Europe.
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SESAR’s Palace
On 02/08/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
No, there is no spelling mistake in the title… we are not talking about that famous (or infamous) institution in Las Vegas. The title of this section of the blog and the first article in it comes from the name affectionately given to the rather somber office building in Blagnac outside Toulouse which used to house the SESAR crew during the definition phase.
Do you know SESAR?
SESAR is now under the management of a dedicated joint undertaking with the direct and indirect involvement of some 70 companies. But what exactly is SESAR all about? When this question is asked, people involved in ATM will usually respond by quoting the official line which describes the essence of the thing: a program that will have a huge impact on ATM related R&D in Europe and on ATM itself as new services and operational procedures are implemented in the 2012 to 2020 time-frame.
Details? This is where all too often the question is met with hesitation or a blank stare…
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