Last week’s Aerodays event (30 March – 1 April) in Madrid was a great success, with around 1600 visitors – far in excess of what was foreseen. The SESAR Joint Undertaking was present in the European Commission exhibition area, and with its members also participated in two SESAR Forums.
Throughout the three day event, the SESAR JU welcomed many interested visitors to its stand, such as engineers and researchers, and SESAR JU staff were on hand to answer questions and give information. The SESAR JU stand also received a visit from Sim Kallas, Vice-President of the Commission responsible for Transport, and Máire Geoghegen- Quinn, Commissioner for Research and Innovation, who had a constructive exchange of views with Jean-Luc Marchand, SESAR JU Programme Manager in charge of WP-E long-term research.
The two SESAR forums were hosted by Peter Hotham, SESAR JU Chief Technology and Innovation, and proved very popular, each attracting more than 150 participants. (slides available below)
The Technology Forum, on 31 March, began with a presentation from Patrick Lelievre (Airbus) looking at the 4-D Trajectory from an aircraft perspective and the enhanced automation that will result. This was followed by a presentation by Theodor Zeh (Frequentis) on the human role, highlighting the ground system aspects and comparisons with automated environments outside of ATM. Richard Houdebert from Thales gave a presentation on how the SESAR programme connects both air and ground, and, to conclude, Angelo Luca Barba, from SELEX, presented the underlying communication technology elements and the communication work being pursued across the SESAR Programme.
The Innovations Forum, on 1 April, focused on new operational network solutions integrating airports, mastering the complexity of such a system, and adapted validation processes. The first presentation, from Francisco Sanchez Romero (Indra) looked at new network solutions, in particular at how stakeholder involvement in collaborative decision-making will change ATM. The next presentation from Alejandro Egido (AENA) focused on the linkage between network and airport operations planning. David Perez, from Innaxis, presented on the subject of managing complexity, and highlighted the importance of building a network that has robustness and resilience as key characteristics. The final presentation by Cristiano Baldoni, from ENAV, presented the SESAR approach to moving from research to implementation through validation activities.
In addition to the two SESAR forums, Fiona McFadden, advisor to the SESAR JU Executive Director, made a presentation on 31 March in one of the parallel sessions on research and innovation. Her presentation focussed on Europe’s vision for air transport by 2050.
SESAR JU Executive Director, Patrick Ky, also gave a presentation in the final Aerodays plenary session on 1 April. He focussed on SESAR’s overall role in the future of ATM, looking in particular at the programme’s long-term research projects and networks and use of innovation.