Space / Aerospace / Aircraft

[deicer]

The next step in autonomous flight is being introduced...

https://www.cnn.com/travel/embraer-e2-enhanced-takeoff-system/index.html

Automatic takeoffs are coming for passenger jets and they’re going to redraw the map of the sky

 

In late 1965, at what’s now London Heathrow airport, a commercial flight coming from Paris made history by being the first to land automatically.

The plane – A Trident 1C operated by BEA, which would later become British Airways – was equipped with a newly developed extension of the autopilot (a system to help guide the plane’s path without manual control) known as “autoland.”

Today, automatic landing systems are installed on most commercial aircraft and improve the safety of landings in difficult weather or poor visibility.

Now, nearly 60 years later, the world’s third largest aircraft manufacturer, Brazil’s Embraer, is introducing a similar technology, but for takeoffs.

Called “E2 Enhanced Take Off System,” after the family of aircraft it’s designed for, the technology would not only improve safety by reducing pilot workload, but it would also improve range and takeoff weight, allowing the planes that use it to travel farther, according to Embraer.

“The system is better than the pilots,” says Patrice London, principal performance engineer at Embraer, who has worked on the project for over a decade. ”That’s because it performs in the same way all the time. If you do 1,000 takeoffs, you will get 1,000 of exactly the same takeoff.”

Embraer, London adds, has already started flight testing, with the aim to get it approved by aviation authorities in 2025, before introducing it from select airports.

Just like Airbus, Embraer has been taking advantage of Boeing’s recent troubles and has been gaining market share, and is now the leading manufacturer of commercial jets with up to 150 seats.

It has delivered almost 1,700 aircraft from its popular E-Jet family, introduced in 2004. Earlier this year, American Airlines announced an order for 90 E175 planes – a regional jet with a capacity of about 80 passengers – with the intent to convert its entire regional fleet to Embraer aircraft by 2030.

In 2018, Embraer revamped some of the models in the family with new engines, wings and avionics, calling them E2. Two variants are now in service, the E-190-E2 and the slightly larger E-195-E2, seating up to about 140 passengers, which puts them in direct competition with the Airbus A220.

Just over 120 E2 aircraft have been delivered so far, with Canada’s Porter Airlines, Brazil’s Azul and The Netherland’s KLM Cityhopper currently the largest operators. Embraer has orders for about 200 more.

It’s on these planes that the company is going to introduce its new automated takeoff system. “I had the pleasure of flying the system on the real airplane a week ago, and it’s amazing,” says Luís Carlos Affonso, senior vice president of engineering and technological development at Embraer. “We believe that the training for pilots will be very limited, because you don’t really change the procedure.”

During an automated takeoff, Affonso says, there is only one key deviation from current procedures. “You do not rotate yourself. You have your hands on the yoke, and the airplane rotates itself,” he says, referring to the action of pulling back on the controls to make the plane’s nose go up.

“In the auto landing, you also have to keep your hands on the controls, and the airplane lands itself. It’s the same here. All the rest remains identical and when the airplane crosses 200 feet in altitude, the system reverts to the normal autopilot and autothrottle, so life goes back to usual.”

Before reaching that altitude, however, the system would have made it possible for the plane to take off earlier and use less of the runway. As a result, the takeoff distance – which is calculated from the release of the brakes until the plane reaches 35 feet of altitude – is reduced compared to a manual takeoff.

No tail strikes

Crucially, the system allows the plane to take off as early as possible and more steeply, but without ever incurring a tail strike — a dangerous situation in which the tail of the plane touches the runway or an obstacle as the aircraft lifts off, sometimes as a result of pilot error.

“If you’re a pilot, you have to give some room for error,” says Affonso. “But because this system is so precise and consistent, you don’t need the same margins and you can operate closer to the optimum in the initial rotation, as if you were closer to touching with the tail. Except you will not.”

Embraer says this optimization allows for an increase in takeoff weight, which means either more passengers or more range — up to 350 nautical miles. This opens up destinations that are precluded with the same combination of airport and aircraft, but without the automated takeoff system.

For now, Embraer plans to introduce the system at three airports: London City in England, Florence in Italy and Santos Dumont in Brazil, but the company says it’s receiving interest for more.

What happens in case of an emergency? The system reacts in the same way as the normal autopilot, sounding an alarm and giving controls back to the pilots. “I tested the system in failure cases, especially when you lose an engine,” Affonso says. “It is amazing how you get a workload reduction, especially during a failure. Whenever you reduce the workloads, you make for a safer operation.”

However, Affonso adds, this is not a first step towards total automation, or even getting rid of one of the pilots. “We are just adding one phase, which is the takeoff phase, where you now can have the autopilot engaged,” he says, “but it’s far from from autonomous, because the pilot is there, and if there is a failure, the pilot is the one that will take control.”

According to Gary Crichlow, an aviation analyst at Aviation News Limited, at this stage it’s too early to tell how the benefits touted by Embraer for the system will translate into real-world operation. “In principle, allowing the system to select and perform the optimal takeoff profile automatically seems like an extension of what has become standard practice in other parts of the flight envelope, rather than a radical step towards a fully autonomous aircraft,” he says.

But as with every other system enhancement ever created, he adds, it all comes down to the implementation” “Whether the system is as readily retrofittable as expected, whether it proves to need no additional training, how well it handles real-world operation, and of course, whether it actually results in a significant improvement in operational efficiency – only time will tell.”

 

[Kip Powick]

And down the road.....

"shouldn't we be off the runway by now !!"

"I would think so !"

"Maybe you should rotate the aircraft !"

"Whaaat ? I have never done that !!!!" 

ABORT !!!!! ABORT !!!!.......

Sad..."Real" pilots are going the way of the Dodo bird 

 

 

[Airband]

Electronic Warfare Spooks Airlines, Pilots and Air-Safety Officials

Hundreds of daily flights around the world are running into GPS spoofing, a hazard that poses new risks for pilots and passengers

Mon Sept. 23, 2024 - WSJ
By Andrew Tangel

Quote

“If we lose an airplane because of workload issues because of these problems we’re encountering, compounded with an emergency, that is going to be a horrendous event,”

American Airlines Capt. Dan Carey knew his cockpit equipment was lying to him when an alert began blaring “pull up!” as his Boeing 777 passed over Pakistan in March—at an altitude of 32,000 feet, far above any terrain.

The warning stemmed from a kind of electronic warfare that hundreds of civilian pilots encounter each day: GPS spoofing. The alert turned out to be false but illustrated how fake signals that militaries use to ward off drones and missiles are also permeating growing numbers of commercial aircraft, including U.S. airlines’ international flights.

“It was concerning, but it wasn’t startling, because we were at cruise altitude,” Carey said. Had an engine failure or other in-flight emergency struck at the same time, though, the situation “could be extremely dangerous.”

Pilots, aviation-industry officials and regulators said spoofed Global Positioning System signals are spreading beyond active conflict zones near Ukraine and the Middle East, confusing cockpit navigation and safety systems and taxing pilots’ attention in commercial jets carrying passengers and cargo.

The attacks started affecting a large number of commercial flights about a year ago, pilots and aviation experts said. The number of flights affected daily has surged from a few dozen in February to more than 1,100 in August, according to analyses from SkAI Data Services and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

Modern airliners’ heavy reliance on GPS means that fake data can cascade through cockpit systems, creating glitches that last for a few minutes or an entire flight. Pilots have reported clocks resetting to earlier times, false warnings and misdirected flight paths, according to anonymized reports shared with government and industry groups.

Aviation-safety officials said spoofing has disrupted some flights but hasn’t posed major safety risks. While pilots are trained on how to use non-GPS navigation systems as a backup, managing the bogus GPS signals and alerts risks dividing pilots’ attention if a more serious problem strikes. 

“If we lose an airplane because of workload issues because of these problems we’re encountering, compounded with an emergency, that is going to be a horrendous event,” said Ken Alexander, the Federal Aviation Administration’s chief scientist for satellite navigation, during a pilot union forum this month in Washington, D.C. 

Airlines are huddling with aircraft makers, suppliers and air-safety regulators to develop short-term workarounds and longer-term fixes. Equipment standards designed to harden civilian aircraft against spoofing won’t be issued until next year at the earliest, according to people familiar with the matter.

Pilots are meanwhile getting preflight briefings about how to identify potential spoofing and respond—which may at times include turning off certain features or ignoring false “pull up!” commands from a safety system heralded for sharply reducing crashes. 

Pilots in some cases have pulled up unnecessarily, according to industry officials. Other aircraft systems, including pilot messaging services, have been thrown off when cockpits draw false time and position data from spoofed signals. 

Researchers said the volume of faked GPS signals has surged over the past six months. Most spoofing attacks come from powerful electronic-warfare transmitters in Russia, Ukraine and Israel, said Todd Humphreys, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Hand-held devices can also spoof GPS signals in a smaller area.

Civilian flights apparently haven’t been targets, though that is little comfort to commercial pilots flying through some of the world’s busiest air corridors.

“These pilots are doing double duty in the cockpit,” Humphreys said, citing pilot reports. He said the industry and regulators should fast-track work to harden planes against spoofing before one has an accident. “This is embarrassing for the airline industry, for the carriers and for the FAA,” he said.

The variety of attacks across different locales have caused a range of problems, according to anonymized reports collected by OpsGroup, an aviation-safety organization that includes pilots, dispatchers and other airline staff.

A spoofed GPS signal in September 2023 nearly sent a private Embraer jet into Iran without clearance, a misdirection that could have led the plane into hostile airspace. The crew of an Airbus A320 departing from Cyprus in July reported a “severe map shift” in the cockpit and the failure of a separate navigation system. A Boeing 787 the same month aborted two landings, one of them 50 feet above the ground, after the loss of a GPS signal kicked off a series of instrument problems.

The FAA said it knew of no spoofing events in the U.S., though industry and government officials said there have been sporadic reports in recent years of possible spoofing or other types of GPS interference that can cause similar disruptions. 

In October 2022, GPS interference disrupted air traffic at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Some planes went off course, and one got too close to another aircraft on final approach in a minor violation of federal rules that keep planes safely apart, according to a government official. Pilots had to rely on conventional navigation systems for their approaches for about two days. 

The FAA earlier this year said it found no proof of intentional interference and was continuing to examine the cause.

GPS spoofing has disrupted operations in Europe but hasn’t endangered flights, said Florian Guillermet, executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. Pilots have had to divert to airports they weren’t intending to land at, and earlier this year an airline temporarily halted operations to an Estonian airport that wasn’t equipped with ground-based navigation as a backup for GPS. 

“The risk is growing in terms of the number of occurrences,” Guillermet said in June.

Industry and government officials are weighing how to address the immediate risks. 

Carriers including United Airlines and American Airlines have been discussing new procedures that would allow pilots to reset cockpit circuit breakers when confronted with false GPS data. 

Airlines and regulators are generally reluctant to let pilots reset systems using circuit breakers, a step that could require them to stand up or introduce other risks such as electrical issues. Boeing hasn’t endorsed the procedure on its 777 aircraft, people familiar with the matter said. The FAA declined to comment on the procedures. 

Boeing said manufacturers, carriers and regulators globally are contributing GPS expertise for solutions to ensure safety. Boeing and Airbus are working with airlines to help develop procedures to assist pilots, the companies said.

United and American said their pilots are equipped with several ways to navigate with precision, even with GPS interference. American said it hasn’t experienced disruptions or significant safety concerns from GPS interference.

Industry officials are urging pilots to stick to manufacturers’ and regulators’ procedures, given the absence of uniform guidance. “We don’t want a do-it-yourself approach,” said Andy Uribe, an aviation-security expert with the Air Line Pilots Association union, during a panel discussion last week.  

Christopher Behnam, who retired in August as a Boeing 777 captain at United, said he frequently encountered GPS interference flying into the Middle East. 

“We are trained for these things, so you stay calm and you just follow the procedure,” Behnam said. Still, he said, when pilots rely on GPS to land in low-visibility conditions, spoofing “could get very, very, very alarming.” 

[Airband]

The US Invented GPS. It Risks Losing Its Way.

Without stronger satellite signals and more resilient backups, the nation’s military and economy could be crippled in a conflict

Deft jams - Photographer: Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty Images

Fri Sep 27, 2024 - Bloomberg News
By The Editorial Board

The satellite-based Global Positioning System has long been one of America’s proudest technological achievements, transforming the way the military fights, companies do business and citizens live their lives. It is now also a critical vulnerability.

Opened to full civilian use only in 2000, GPS has since become integral to modern life. More than 4 billion users worldwide depend on signals from its satellites to determine position, navigation and timing. The system guides missiles to their targets and airliners to their destinations. Banks depend on its precise time stamps to process transactions. It is vital to power grids, cellular networks, emergency services and countless other applications; a prolonged outage could cost more than $1 billion a day. And, with the advent of drone warfare and new technologies such as self-driving cars, GPS is only going to become more essential.

At the same time, the risks of disruption are rising. China and Russia have honed their ability to disable US satellites using missiles, lasers, cyberattacks and even other satellites. Russia has demonstrated in Ukraine how easily GPS signals can be jammed, sending drones and guided munitions wildly off target. More insidiously, many countries now regularly “spoof” GPS — sending out false signals and leading ships and planes to think they’re somewhere else entirely. Such incidents have affected civil aviation and shipping from the East China Sea to the eastern Mediterranean.

Although its rivals depend on their own satellite-based navigation systems, the US is especially vulnerable due to a lack of alternatives. An advisory board overseeing GPS warned last year that the system was now “substantially inferior” to China’s larger BeiDou network, which has better coverage and accuracy than GPS in many parts of the world. More important, both Russia and China have terrestrial backups in place.

US policymakers aren’t blind to the danger: The Pentagon began launching satellites capable of broadcasting an encrypted, jamming-resistant military signal, known as M-code, almost 20 years ago. Yet delays continue to plague the program. Ground stations needed to operate the new system are more than seven years behind schedule, while costs have ballooned 73% above estimates. About 700 weapons systems will require more than a million new receivers, which remain under development, before they can process M-code signals. Meanwhile, the US effectively abandoned its own land-based network of radio beacons, which could’ve served as a GPS backup, in 2009.

Fixing the problem will require leadership. Congress should consider assigning authority for GPS to a centralized office, rather than the multiple agencies now sharing responsibility. It should also ensure that the Space Force has the budget to develop satellite defenses and “counterspace” capabilities, and demand greater accountability for the M-code debacle. Meanwhile, the US should collaborate with allies in Europe and Asia that field their own positioning systems, both in space and on Earth, to strengthen their mutual resilience to disruption.

As for backups to GPS, clearing the civilian signal known as L5 for wider use and revising export-control rules to allow the sale of adaptive antennas would give companies two immediate tools to help combat jamming and spoofing. Reestablishing a terrestrial network of navigational towers should also be under consideration.

Finally, the US needs to take advantage of its lead in private-sector innovation. Companies are already exploring alternate ways to provide position, navigation and timing information using new constellations of satellites in low Earth orbit, detailed terrain maps, quantum sensors and more exotic technologies. Regulators can require or incentivize operators of critical infrastructure to have such backups in place, which would spur demand far more effectively than the few grants the Pentagon has doled out thus far. Government departments can set an example by procuring alternatives themselves.

No single technology can offer perfect protection. The best the US can hope for is a layered defense that deters its enemies. The time to start building it is now.

[Kip Powick]

About time we went back to being real pilots........hone your skills  so once again we can traverse the world with TACAN,  ADF, Aural Null, Radio Range, and don't forget to  practice lost orientation  and  guys/gals we'll git 'er done !!! 

Ocean Station Charlie will be back in the saddle as well and eastbound don't forget the ADF on  BBC Droitwich 198-200 kHz.

Going on Polar routes, you might wanna brush up on Grid Nav !!

Gonna call up some of the Navs I know and tell them that some of the airlines might be hiring.

Yee Haw !!!!...