SITA announced that the newly launched Bombardier Challenger 3500 business jet will offer its eWAS Pilot with OptiFlight, together dubbed the “eco app” by the Canadian aerospace group. It is the first time eWAS Pilot with OptiFlight is offered as a feature on a business jet, helping pilots reduce fuel burn and carbon emissions.

The Challenger 3500 aircraft, launched in Montréal earlier this week, is also the first super mid-size aircraft to have an Environmental Product Declaration, with solutions such as eWAS Pilot with OptiFlight contributing to the overall efficiency of the jet. Bombardier has made sustainability a primary focus for the new Challenger 3500 business jet, reflecting its commitment to the environment as well as the priorities of its customers around the world.

Avoiding adverse weather, saving aircraft fuel, and reducing CO₂ emissions

The eco app helps pilots optimize their flight profiles to maximize fuel efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and improve situational awareness for a safer, more comfortable flight. eWAS Pilot provides accurate 4D weather forecasts and real-time updates from various sources to warn about hazards such as thunderstorms, lightning, clear air turbulence, strong winds, icing, and even volcanic ash. Based on this information, pilots can dynamically determine the most economical flight paths that avoid adverse weather.

The software suite OptiFlight helps save aircraft fuel and reduce CO₂ emissions during the three flight phases: climb, cruise and descent. The focus currently lies on the climb-out – the most fuel-consuming phase of a flight – and the cruise phase.

Improving the cruise phase of a flight

The OptiFlight solution is fully integrated into the eWAS Pilot application, allowing pilots to achieve significant fuel savings and carbon emission reductions during a flight’s cruise phase. In particular, it provides pilots the fuel and time impact of speed variations with the objective of on-time arrival at the best fuel/time ratio. It also recommends shortcuts based on historical flight data and indicates possible fuel and time savings, advising pilots on the best initial flight level and cruise level changes, taking tailwinds and headwinds into account.

Improving the climb phase of a flight

For the climb phase, tail-specific machine learning performance models combined with 4D weather forecasts recommend customized speed changes at different altitudes for each climb. The software predicts fuel burn in tens of thousands of possible flight scenarios and then issues recommended climb speeds to pilots ahead of each flight.

Data from airline operations shows that climb fuel savings of 5-6% are possible for each flight without affecting passenger safety or comfort. Yearly, this could reduce CO₂ emissions by several thousands of tons and operational costs by several million dollars, depending on the size of the airline fleet. An estimated 5.6 million tons of CO₂ could be avoided if all airlines in the world were to use OptiFlight.

Elza Brunelle-Yeung, Senior Director, Aftermarket Products and Services, Bombardier said: “The new Challenger 3500 aircraft was designed to reflect what our customers need and want in a business jet in this segment: renowned performance and reliability of the Challenger aircraft family, exceptional cabin experience and sustainably minded design. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of like-minded suppliers such as SITA, the new offerings on the Challenger 3500 aircraft further highlights Bombardier’s steadfast commitment to our industry’s sustainability efforts.”

Already 67,000 pilots from commercial airlines to cargo airlines use eWAS Pilot. Though predominately developed in Barcelona, SITA developed components of the solution in Montréal and has established a center of excellence in the Canadian city focused on using artificial intelligence to develop new intelligent solutions for the air transport industry.

Sébastien Fabre, CEO of SITA FOR AIRCRAFT, said: “SITA is focused on helping customers lower operational costs while reducing the aviation industry’s environmental impact. With eWAS Pilot and OptiFlight, we can deliver on both counts and make flights safer and more comfortable. The fact that these solutions are now available on a business jet for the very first time shows just how important leveraging technology is to make our skies more environmentally friendly.”

SITA, the world’s leading IT provider for the air transport industry, announced it has achieved CarbonNeutral® company certification. This major milestone – realized a full year ahead of SITA’s original target of 2022 – resulted from decisive actions to significantly reduce emissions associated with its business operations in 2020.

SITA has reduced its overall emissions of greenhouse gases by 48% between 2019 and 2020. SITA’s UN recognized carbon neutrality Planet+ program has been key to lowering the company’s emissions with initiatives designed to create sustainable and energy-efficient workplaces and reduce internal business travel.

SITA also compensates 100% of any carbon emissions that it has been unable to reduce or eliminate by financing projects that help cut and negate existing and future carbon emissions while supporting multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These offsetting projects include supporting reforestation and protecting biodiversity.

SITA’s journey to achieving carbon neutrality and formal accreditation has involved working with several independent expert environmental bodies. To develop a credible carbon neutral program, the organization has followed The CarbonNeutral Protocol’s rigorous framework, which is managed by Natural Capital Partners, the leading experts on carbon neutrality and climate finance. Working with independent emissions assessor RSK Group, a comprehensive review of emissions relating to operations and business travel was undertaken to calculate SITA’s carbon footprint. In 2020, this was extended to include many more indirect emissions generated from activities such as homeworking, which was commonplace for SITA employees during the pandemic. The decrease in SITA’s carbon footprint reflects its actions since 2018 to reduce, eliminate and offset its emissions to achieve certification.

Following the organization’s carbon neutrality achievement, the company is firmly committed to further decrease emissions and achieve its challenging reduction targets for the years to come. In parallel, SITA is turning its attention to developing new technology to help its customers and the wider aviation industry reduce its carbon footprint. This work is predominately focused on streamlining aircraft operations and reducing fuel burn, with a clear and measurable reduction in carbon emissions.

The company’s recent acquisition of Safety Line was designed to strengthen the organization’s portfolio to help drive greater operational efficiencies around fuel consumption and limiting aircraft CO₂ emissions at key flight stages.

Barbara Dalibard, CEO of SITA, said: “We are delighted to have achieved our carbon neutral goal as part of our ongoing sustainability journey. I want to thank our employees who have been critical in reaching this ambitious milestone, one year ahead of our original deadline.  Being a trusted partner to the air transport industry, we are firmly committed to helping aviation reduce its emissions and achieve its carbon reduction objectives.”

SITA announced it will integrate the Iridium Certus® satellite communication service into its Unified Aircraft Communications portfolio, which provides critical communications for SITA’s airline and Air Navigation Service Provider customers globally, and supports more than 19,000 aircraft in their daily operations.

Iridium Certus enables a dedicated native IP connection to the cockpit with global coverage and increased security via authentication and virtual private networking. The platform also increases the capacity of the overall aircraft communications ecosystem, easing the adoption of future air traffic management practices and applications that help optimize aircraft and airspace operations in general. These applications support the reduction of aviation’s environmental impact and help generate efficiencies for aircraft operators. For example, graphical weather services like SITA’s EFB Weather Awareness Services (eWAS Pilot) can be enhanced via satellite communications. Connecting such applications inflight allows pilots to access the most up-to-date multi-source weather reports for turbulence, thunderstorms, and lightning in real time, and consequently to avoid hazardous weather, generate fuel savings, reduce emissions, operational cost, and the cost of delays. At the same time, passengers experience a more comfortable service.

Iridium Certus redefines the capabilities of mobile satellite communications in a single, condensed platform. Designed to support critical connectivity needs regardless of location, terrain, and weather, it perfectly complements SITA’s global VHF network.

Tim Last, Vice President and General Manager of Aviation, Iridium, said: “Iridium Certus provides airlines with a powerful and versatile satcom solution that opens up the possibilities of connected aircraft. We’re excited to be positioned alongside the SITA suite of solutions already servicing more than 19,000 aircraft and look forward to exploring the partnership’s potential. Iridium Certus is a flexible platform and will continue to evolve. It offers higher and lower data speeds through a wide variety of connected equipment to address customer needs and expand into new markets.”

SITA will support validating the Iridium Certus service and aircraft satellite communications systems for Future Air Navigation System (FANS) use on the SITA network to ensure suitability for the handling of Air Traffic Control communications. Evaluations are anticipated to commence before the end of 2022. Iridium Certus will become a line-fit on most major aircraft types and be retrofitted so existing aircraft can benefit from the latest satellite communications technology.

Yann Cabaret, Vice President of Strategy, Product and Marketing, SITA FOR AIRCRAFT, said: “We’re delighted to extend our successful long-term partnership with Iridium to offer Iridium Certus to the airlines. With our recent acquisition of Safety Line, we’ve demonstrated our commitment to innovation around the connected aircraft. Various applications in the market can benefit from being connected inflight to Iridium Certus. From helping airlines achieve greater efficiency and reduce carbon footprint and fuel expenditure, to increasing passenger comfort and safety, the connected aircraft signals a smarter, safer, and more sustainable aviation future for all.”

Source: SITA

Rolls-Royce announced that its UltraFan® power gearbox has set a new world aerospace record at its facility in Germany.

The gearbox has reached 87,000 horsepower or 64 megawatts – enough to power a city the size of Bath, United Kingdom – on test at Dahlewitz, near Berlin. The power milestone was achieved as build continues on the power gearbox that will be delivered for the actual UltraFan demonstrator engine, UF001, later this year.

UltraFan, which is scalable for narrowbody or widebody aircraft, is a key element of Rolls-Royce’s commitment to making travel more sustainable. Gas turbines will continue to be the bedrock of long-haul aviation for many years, and UltraFan’s efficiency will help improve the economics of an industry transition to more sustainable fuels, which are likely to be more expensive in the short-term than traditional jet fuel. The first test run of the engine will be conducted on 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

Dr Holger Klinger, Sub-System Executive Power Gearbox, Rolls-Royce, said: “Reaching this record is another great achievement that showcases the performance and durability of this key component for our UltraFan programme. The power gearbox technology is central to the success of the next generation of Rolls-Royce jet engines and I’m proud to see us pushing the engineering boundaries again.”

The PGB is playing a central role for the UltraFan engine, helping to deliver excellent efficiency levels over a wide range of thrusts. It has a planetary design, with each ‘planet’ capable of holding the force of a Trent XWB engine at full throttle. It is designed to allow the turbine at the rear of the engine to run at a very high speed while the fan at the front runs at a lower speed. This makes the engine very efficient, making  the UltraFan engine 25% more fuel efficient than the first generation of Rolls-Royce Trent engines.

Development testing of the first prototype gearbox, focused on validation, endurance and reliability, began in 2017 at the dedicated PGB test facility in Dahlewitz. During a rigorous test regime, the power gearbox has since accumulated more than 650 testing hours and proven its capability of managing the equivalent power of an entire grid of Formula 1 cars.

As well as high power testing, the PGB has been undergoing test on the facility’s Attitude Rig, which simulates the effect of the gearbox being on the wing of an aircraft in flight, through phases such as take-off, climb, banking and descent.

 Notes to editors

Pictures can be found here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjXZFoNS

 About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

1. Rolls-Royce pioneers the power that matters to connect, power and protect society. We have pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in our operations by 2030. We joined the UN Race to Zero campaign in 2020, and have committed to ensuring our new products will be compatible with net zero operation by 2030, and all products will be compatible with net zero by 2050.
2. Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 150 countries, comprising more than 400 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces and navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
3. Annual underlying revenue was £11.76 billion in 2020 and we invested £1.25 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 28 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a publicly traded company (LSE:RR., ADR: RYCEY, LEI: 213800EC7997ZBLZJH69).

 

For further information, please contact:

Stefan Wriege

External Communications – Business Aviation & Rolls-Royce Deutschland

Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd & Co KG

Tel +49 (0)171 6130802

stefan.wriege@rolls-royce.com

Source: Rolls-Royce

Siemens and SITA are providing the Kansas City Aviation Department with future-proof, scalable technologies for the Kansas City International (MCI) Airport’s New Terminal project, dubbed Build KCI.

The new 1 million sq ft, 39-gate terminal will include a variety of building automation, fire and life safety systems, and security systems from Siemens as well as IT networks and next-generation airport systems from SITA. These solutions will help create a smart airport terminal that can grow with the aviation department‘s long-term needs, decrease operation and maintenance costs and enhance the passenger experience through automation.

Kansas City‘s Director of Aviation, Pat Klein, said: “Together, Siemens and SITA are providing the virtual and physical infrastructure that will ensure Kansas City International Airport’s New Terminal is equipped to deliver an exceptional journey for our passengers; one built on innovation, industry expertise and a true understanding of what travelers want today and into the future.”

Also important to the project is the need for a seamless transition from the construction to the operation phase, delivered through integrated life safety and emergency communications systems, a virtualized IT network and agile passenger touchpoints. In addition, the airport wanted to implement interactive technology that could be easily understood by airport staff, while also deploying next-generation passenger touchpoints such as touchless kiosks, flight information display systems and video walls that provide a more intuitive journey through the new terminal.

Dana Soukup, President of Solutions and Services for Region Americas, Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA, said: “Integrating the disparate airport systems has simplified and enabled data sharing across the airport ecosystem. Siemens and SITA, through a joint project management approach, are combining their expertise in airport facilities systems, operations systems, and IT systems to provide the aviation department with a solid technology infrastructure and intuitive, easy-to-use systems that allow terminal staff and operators to transition from their two current airport terminals to a new, technology-advanced single airport terminal.”

Siemens is using its Desigo CC platform to integrate airport and facility systems with a converged network. Access control, video surveillance, distributed antenna, airport common use systems, multi-user flight information displays, IpTV, VoIP, and various other building automation, fire, life safety, and security systems will be incorporated. Fire alarm, public address, and digital displays will be integrated with the Desigo CC mass notification system. The Desigo CC platform will, in turn, be integrated with the airport asset management platform.

SITA‘s mission-critical network connectivity will be fundamental to the exchange of data around baggage, passengers and aircraft across the terminal. The network will be cloud-based and virtualized, providing greater cost efficiencies while supporting the airline industry’s drive to migrate applications to the cloud.

SITA’s airport systems will be fundamental to supporting a smoother passenger journey and the airport operations that underpin them. In the terminal, SITA Flex – a cloud-based common use platform – will allow passengers to check in through a simple biometric scan at one of the self-service kiosks or, if preferred, a traditional agent-assisted counter. Then they simply use their face as their boarding pass to board international flights. The multi-user informational display screens for flights, baggage and gates will also provide travelers with the information they need to navigate their way through the airport.

Diana Einterz, President, SITA Americas, said: “Emerging from the pandemic has taught us the importance of implementing scalable and flexible systems that can accommodate unexpected changes in real time. SITA is providing the airport operations backbone that will give MCI the agility it needs to operate in this new environment.”

Source: SITA

(Aug. 10, 2021) – Collins Aerospace’s next-generation Enhanced Vision Sensor has been selected to be integrated into Airbus’ Enhanced Flight Vision System (EFVS). EFVS will become a selectable option on Airbus commercial aircraft, expanding approach capability and increasing flight situational awareness during reduced visibility conditions. The EFVS option, with the Collins EVS sensor, will be offered first on the A320 aircraft, with the intention to offer this solution on other platforms in the future.

The EFVS will use input from the Collins Aerospace sensor, mounted on the nose of the aircraft, to create an augmented reality view of the outside world. The sensor uses multiple infrared and visible light cameras to “see through” poor visibility conditions better than the human eye. When the pilots view this camera video on head-up displays, it allows them to better identify the runway environment in all weather conditions — helping pilots overcome many flight disruptions often created by fog or precipitation. In addition, because the technology enables pilots to reduce delays on the runway and in the air, it actively reduces the amount of carbon emissions created by the aircraft.

“Thanks to new EFVS regulations, we’re able to leverage this technology for airlines across the globe that want to optimize their operations,” said Dave Nieuwsma, president of Avionics for Collins Aerospace. “Airbus operators who adopt EFVS will enjoy a competitive advantage that directly translates into improved on-time performance, operational cost and fuel savings.”

In addition, EFVS will also ease instrument to visual transition and provide enhanced situational awareness, in particular for “night Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC)” conditions, and/or terrain, as well as lateral alignment on the runway, traffic and runway surface identification.

The next-generation EVS sensor will also be available for retrofit on existing in-service Airbus aircraft.

About Collins Aerospace 

Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of Raytheon Technologies Corp. (NYSE: RTX), is a leader in technologically advanced and intelligent solutions for the global aerospace and defense industry. Collins Aerospace has the extensive capabilities, comprehensive portfolio and broad expertise to solve customers’ toughest challenges and to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving global market. For more information, visit CollinsAerospace.com.

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