Innovative Future Air Transport System

IFATS is a European Commission funded project under the FP6 program

IFATS is the study of a revolutionary concept for a future air transportation system by adding as much onboard autonomy to the aircraft as necessary to fulfil the overall requirements of improved efficiency and safety of air transportation.

IFATS is a Thematic priority 1.4 « Aeronautics and Space », Key action 1.3.1.3: « Improving aircraft safety and security ».

A full high level description of IFATS Project is available in pdf format (689 K).

The final meeting of the IFATS project, presenting its results, has been held on the 20 of March 2007 - You can get a video presenting the main concepts of IFATS here (wmv file, 4.8 MB).

A full package with information (for researchers, the press, and anybody who may be interested in the future of air transport) is available upon request. Please contact us to get this package (whereabouts are available at the bottom of this page).

Project Description

The IFATS project proposes to study a revolutionary concept for a future air transportation system by adding as much onboard automation and autonomy to the aircraft as necessary to fulfil the overall requirements of improved efficiency and safety of air transportation.

All the various air and ground components of the system communicate with one another through a network-centric architecture:

Aircraft fly autonomously pre-programmed flight plans using sophisticated onboard computing and sensor systems. Ground operators are responsible for the overall situation, whereabouts of aircraft and tracking of their intentions,

Functionalities of the system are flexibly distributed between the ground and aircraft, relying on intensive data communication capabilities between aircraft, and between aircraft and the network of ground stations.

Current pilots and controllers tasks are deeply modified as the elements of the system communicate digitally: pilots can be removed from the cockpit and controllers work is transformed into system monitoring actions. Additional features are added like direct assistance from the aircraft manufacturer for in flight aircraft diagnosis and remote maintenance.

IFATS Basics

The central goals of this project are:

to define a technically viable concept of an air transportation system where aircraft would be operating with a high degree of automation providing autonomy controlled and monitored by ground operators through a network-centric architecture;

to define autonomous operation procedures and optimise tasks sharing between the operators, the automated ground control system, the autonomous onboard computing systems and to identify any need for an onboard engineer;

to determine the minimum requirements and functionalities of the onboard system, to ensure safe operation in the case of communication loss with the ground control system;

to perform a safety analysis of the concept and to provide guidelines to certification issues;

to identify the difficulties to overcome to build such an Air Transport System, in both the technical and cultural aspects;

to find out an adequate level of automation for a future acceptable system;

to analyse a procedure to migrate from the present situation to this future system.

Technical approach

Driven by the assumption of an aircraft with a sophisticated level of autonomy, the necessary functionalities of the ground and onboard components of a future air transportation system can be isolated and analysed on their conceptual maturity.
This includes normal operations as well as critical flight situations or emergency cases.

Comparing the IFATS approach with the planned evolutionary improvements of the existing air transportation system will determine the main differences, advantages and weaknesses of IFATS vs. the existing system.

The comparison results could be used in one of the two directions:

the IFATS approach could be adopted as the long-term air transportation concept,

or IFATS ideas could be used to improve the current air traffic systems in the mid term perspective while using IFATS validated concepts.

Expected achievements/impact

Air transportation system concept definition and preliminary evaluation (comparison)

IFATS Community

IFATS project involves 11 contractors

Office National d’Etudes et de Recherche Aérospatiales (ONERA), France

EADS Defence and Security Systems SA, France

Israel Aircraft industries, Israel

Thales Communications SA, France

Alenia Aeronautica S.p.A, Italy

Erdyn consultants, France

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt e.V, Germany

Direction des Services de la Navigation Aérienne (DSNA/DTI/SDER), France

Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali ScpA, Italy

University of Patras, Greece

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

Project coordination

Claude Le Tallec,
Long-Term Design and Systems Integration,
ONERA Châtillon
BP 72
29 avenue de La Division Leclerc
92322 Châtillon Cedex
FRANCE
Email: Claude.Le-Tallec<at>onera.fr

Project Management

Hélène Jacquet
erdyn consultants
168, boulevard Camélinat
92240 Malakoff
FRANCE
Email: helene.jacquet<at>erdyn.fr

Administrative Information

This project is a European Commission funded project under the FP6 program

Project acronym : IFATS

Project name : Innovative Future Air Transport System

Priority : Thematic priority 1.4 « Aeronautics and Space », Key action 1.3.1.3: « Improving aircraft safety and security »

Duration : 36 Months - July 2004 to June 2007

More information about FP6 on the Cordis website

About this web site

For any question or remark regarding this web site please send an email to ifats@erdyn.fr