Enhancement of the Advanced Weather Awareness System for the development of an Integrated Mission Management System in the COAST project

Abstract

Abstract The COAST (Cost Optimized Avionics SysTem) project, funded by Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, works toward the realization of cost-effective key technologies for cockpit and avionics of Small Air Transport (SAT) aircraft. In 2020 the design of a new technology started, the Integrated Mission Management System (IMMS), devoted to automatically optimize the trajectory while considering air-traffic, weather conditions, terrain and obstacles. It is aimed to implement into a unique system the functionalities of Trajectory Planning, Flight Reconfiguration, Tactical Separation and Weather Awareness, benefitting from the integration and interaction on-board of three technologies, individually developed and tested in the first phases of the COAST project: Flight Reconfiguration System (FRS, managing pilot’s incapacitation emergency), Tactical Separation System (TSS, managing tactical traffic separation and enhanced situational awareness) and Advanced Weather Awareness System (AWAS, devoted to provide on-board updated weather data). The present work focuses on the last one and more in detail on the description of new functionalities introduced to the baseline AWAS system, already demonstrated in flight in 2021, in order to allow its integration in IMMS. Specifically, enhancements to the AWAS technology were required to integrate new input weather data and generate additional information, needed for IMMS purposes. These data are produced on-ground and sent through satellite link to the AWAS on-board segment, which has been updated to manage and exchange them with the other components on the aircraft. All the achieved progresses in the development of the evolved version of the AWAS system presented in this work will be demonstrated and tested in flight during a dedicated campaign planned in 2023 in the framework of COAST project.