THALES coordinated the second formal review of the FLYSAFE project on 8 and 9 March 2006 at NLR in Amsterdam. The majority of the thirty-six project participants and the European Commission were represented at the review.

With air traffic expected to triple over the period 2000-2020, the European Commission and the ACARE (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe), which helps the Commission define its priorities in this area, have identified sustainable aviation safety as a major research objective.

Retained in 2004, then launched in February 2005 within the 6th Research and Development Framework Programme of the European Commission, Flysafe will design, develop and validate a complete generation of onboard systems to provide pilots with flight safety support, as well as new ground systems to send detailed weather information to aircraft.

Flysafe project partners include Airbus, Diehl Avionik Systeme, BAE Systems, NLR, DLR, Météo France, UK Met and the University of Hanover. Launched in February 2005, it is a four-year collaborative effort which represents a €53 million budget with €29 million European Commission contribution .

Key deliverables include:
- a configurable human machine interface offering integrated, incremental presentation of potential risks at any moment during the flight
- more precise and detailed onboard visualisation of the other aircraft
- terrain and obstacle presentations tailored to each flight phase
- more precise and detailed information on atmospheric disturbances such as thunderstorms, icing conditions and clear air turbulence.

Detailed atmospheric information will be generated by a unique combination of on-board measuring equipment and new ground-based systems at regional and local levels. National meteorological institutes and research centres will work together to develop atmospheric information systems specifically for air safety needs.

All the solutions developed under the Flysafe project will enhance pilots’ short, intermediate and long-term knowledge of airspace conditions. They will employ the latest technologies to present relevant information to pilots according to real needs and risk levels while minimising additional workload.

All the functions will be integrated into a common platform that will be first assembled in Toulouse and then tested on the NLR simulator in Amsterdam, which will faithfully reproduce the aircraft’s environment, complete with weather conditions and simulated aircraft and ATC functions.

Flight tests using fixed wing and rotatry wing aircraft will be conducted to assess the performance of critical subsystems and optimise usability.