R & D – research and development

To be able to offer highly sophisticated and state of the art solutions for air traffic control, airports, airlines and ground handling companies, and to remain one of the top suppliers in this area, delair is investing in research activities. The objective of this engagement is to design, develop and test new products in a team with end-users, research organisations and universities and to support standardisation processes.

Currently delair is involved in two programs – SESAR, the Single European Sky ATM Research program, and the ‘Innovative Airport’ (iPort) project as part of the German Aviation Research Program.

SESAR aims at developing the new generation air traffic management system capable of ensuring the safety and flow of air transport worldwide over the next 30 years. It is composed of three phases:

• Definition phase
• Development phase
• Deployment phase

The current phase in progress is the development phase which started 2008. delair is active in two work packages – 10.9.1 and 12.4.4 – as a subcontractor to DFS. The objective of WP 10.9.1 is to develop an integrated set of queue management tools for the optimisation of resources at the airport level. The main focus in WP 10.9.1 is on the arrival manager. In WP 12.4.4 the full integration of departure management and surface management tools will be developed. The scope of this project also includes the analysis of any potential merging among AMAN, DMAN and SMAN into a single platform and its corresponding technical and operational validation.

iPort is addressing two main objectives of the German Aviation Research Program – improving the performance of airports (air-to-air and gate-to-gate management) and reducing delays and emissions (uninterrupted flight and taxi routes). iPort is divided in several sub-projects. The one delair is highly involved in is called iMan (integrated airport management systems).

The objective of iMan is the development of a new generation of systems by connecting tactical tools (AMAN, DMAN, SMAN) with pre-tactical tools (APMS) to plan and to control airport operations in a holistic approach. Based on existing and proven tools this system integration is designed, developed and tested in a simulated environment. delair has an active role in all phases of the project.