First Royal Canadian Air Force C295 makes maiden flight
https://youtu.be/MoqEgl7n3Bk
press release
he first Airbus C295, purchased by the Government of Canada for the Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Aircraft Replacement (FWSAR) program, has completed its maiden flight, marking a key milestone towards delivery by the end of 2019 to begin operational testing by the RCAF. The aircraft, designated CC-295 for the Canadian customer, took off from Seville, Spain, on 4 July at 20:20 local time (GMT+1) and landed back on site one hour and 27 minutes later.
The photo above shows the first RCAF C295 during its maiden flight.
FWSAR program facts and figures
The contract, awarded in December 2016, includes 16 C295 aircraft and all In-Service Support elements including, training and engineering services, the construction of a new Training Centre in Comox, British Columbia, and maintenance and support services.
The aircraft will be based where search and rescue squadrons are currently located: Comox, British Columbia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Trenton, Ontario; and Greenwood, Nova Scotia.
Considerable progress has been made since the FWSAR program was announced two and a half years ago: the first aircraft will now begin flight testing; another five aircraft are in various stages of assembly; and seven simulator and training devices are in various testing stages.
In addition, the first RCAF crews will begin training in late summer 2019 at Airbus’ International Training Centre in Seville, Spain.
The FWSAR program is supporting some $2.5 billion (CAD) in Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) to Canada, through high-value, long-term partnerships with Canadian industry.
As of January 2019, 86 percent of key Canadian In-Service Support (ISS) tasks have been performed in-country by Canadian companies in relation to establishing the FWSAR ISS system. Airbus is thus on track in providing high value work to Canadian industry and has demonstrated a successful start to the development and transfer of capability to Canadian enterprises for the support of the FWSAR aircraft.
Beyond direct program participation, Airbus is generating indirect business across Canadian military, aeronautical and space industry including Small and Medium Businesses in support of the ITB program.
For more information about the FWSAR program, click here Read more...
Video: Automatic Landing with vision assisted navigation. "Eyes" for the autopilot
press release
https://youtu.be/tPFC7Ki2JT0
- Successful automatic landing with vision assisted navigation
- "Eyes" for the autopilot
Automatic landings have long been standard procedure for commercial aircraft. While major airports have the infrastructure necessary to ensure the safe navigation of the aircraft, this is usually not the case at smaller airports. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and their project partners have now demonstrated a completely automatic landing with vision assisted navigation that functions properly without the need for ground-based systems.
At large airports the Instrument Landing System (ILS) makes it possible for commercial aircraft to land automatically with great precision. Antennas send radio signals to the autopilot to make sure it navigates to the runway safely. Procedures are also currently being developed that will allow automatic landing based on satellite navigation. Here too a ground-based augmentation system is required.
However, systems like these are not available for general aviation at smaller airports, which is a problem in case of poor visibility – then aircraft simply cannot fly. "Automatic landing is essential, especially in the context of the future role of aviation," says Martin Kügler, research associate at the TUM Chair of Flight System Dynamics. This applies for example when automated aircraft transport freight and of course when passengers use automated flying taxis.
Camera-based optical reference system
In the project "C2Land", supported by the German federal government, TUM researchers have partnered with Technische Universität Braunschweig to develop a landing system which lets smaller aircraft land without assistance from ground-based systems.
The autopilot uses GPS signals to navigate. The problem: GPS signals are susceptible to measurement inaccuracies, for example due to atmospheric disturbances. The GPS receiver in the aircraft can't always reliably detect such interferences. As a result, current GPS approach procedures require the pilots to take over control at an altitude of no less than 60 meters and land the aircraft manually.
In order to make completely automated landings possible, the TU Braunschweig team designed an optical reference system: A camera in the normal visible range and an infrared camera that can also provide data under conditions with poor visibility. The researchers developed custom-tailored image processing software that lets the system determine where the aircraft is relative to the runway based on the camera data it receives.
TUM research aircraft features Fly-by-Wire system
The TUM team developed the entire automatic control system of TUM's own research aircraft, a modified Diamond DA42. The aircraft is equipped with a Fly-by-Wire system enabling control by means of an advanced autopilot, also developed by the TUM researchers.
In order to make automatic landings possible, additional functions were integrated in the software, such as comparison of data from the cameras with GPS signals, calculation of a virtual glide path for the landing approach as well as flight control for various phases of the approach.
Successful landing in Wiener-Neustadt
In late May the team was able to watch as the research aircraft made a completely automatic landing at the Diamond Aircraft airfield. Test pilot Thomas Wimmer is completely convinced by the landing system: "The cameras already recognize the runway at a great distance from the airport. The system then guides the aircraft through the landing approach on a completely automatic basis and lands it precisely on the runway's centerline."
Publications:
- S. Wolkow, M. Angermann, A. Dekiert, and Ulf Bestmann, "Model-based Threshold and Centerline Detection for Aircraft Positioning during Landing Approach", in Proceedings of the ION 2019 Pacific PNT Meeting, 8-11 April 2019. https://doi.org/10.33012/2019.16787
- M. Angermann, S. Wolkow, A. Dekiert, U. Bestmann, and P. Hecker, "Linear Blend: Data Fusion in the Image Domain for Image-based Aircraft Positioning during Landing Approach", in Proceedings of the ION 2019 Pacific PNT Meeting, 8-11 April 2019. https://doi.org/10.33012/2019.16836
- M. E. Kügler, N. C. Mumm, F. Holzapfel, A. Schwithal, and M. Angermann, "Vision-Augmented Automatic Landing of a General Aviation Fly-by-Wire Demonstrator", in AIAA SciTech Forum, 7-11 January 2019. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-1641
More information:
The research project C2Land is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The project partners are the TU Braunschweig Institute for Flight Guidance (IFF) (https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/iff), the TUM Chair for Flight System Dynamics, f.u.n.k.e. AVIONICS GmbH, messWERK GmbH and Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH
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