Taxibots, E-Taxi systems and single engine taxiing are some of the technologies under investigation by partners in the SESAR JU AEON project to reduce significantly CO2 emissions caused by aircraft taxiing at airports. Funded within the framework of Horizon 2020, the project aims to define a concept of operations, making use of novel technologies that are coming onto the market.

The ATM academic community needs to listen to controllers, pilots and airspace managers that run the system to ensure that their research is relevant to what’s actually happening on the ground, says Christian Eduardo Verdonk Gallego, CRIDA, and winner of the SESAR Young Scientist Award. In this interview, he shares what winning the prize means for him and the lessons we can learn from COVID.

AMU-LED and CORUS-XUAM, two very large-scale demonstration projects were launched in January aimed at trialling a range of air mobility services over the next two years in a number of cities across Europe, within the framework of U-space.
Read about AMU-LED
Read about CORUS-XUAM

After two years of experimental entry-into-service programmes and more than 20,000 flights carried out by about 90 A320 aircraft from six airlines (Air France, British Airways, EasyJet, Iberia, Novair and Wizzair), the DIGITS project led by Airbus alongside more than 15 partners came to an end in 2020. The project focused on analysing the real-time transmission of four-dimensional trajectory data (Latitude, longitude, altitude, time) as a solution to better inform ATM operations.

Finding ways to make aviation as environmentally efficient as possible is a top priority for SESAR 2020 research and innovation programme and projects like DYNCAT, which is analysing in detail operational datasets to see how to make approaches greener.

A newly-launched SESAR industrial research project is investigating solutions for making air traffic management more flexible, efficient and responsive to changing traffic demand and conditions. The project will also trial LDACS, a technology offering spectrum-efficient data link connectivity and digital voice communications.

The 10th SESAR Innovation Days (SIDs) took place on 7-10 December 2020 as a virtual conference, gathering over a thousand participants for 4 days of keynotes, technical paper sessions and a virtual poster exhibition showcasing some of the breakthrough concepts from the SESAR Joint Undertaking’s exploratory research portfolio, as well as novel research from the broader ATM research community.