The project main objective is the demonstration of General Aviation and Rotorcraft capability to benefit from the concepts developed in the SESAR programme, in order to facilitate their integration into airspace and airports where the SESAR concepts and technologies are implemented. This objective will be achieved through live flight trials and preparatory Real-Time Simulation campaign, with hardware and humans in the loop, which will be focused on both procedural issues and technological aspects related to Global Navigation Satellite System technologies and simultaneous non-interfering operations. Specifically, the GRADE project will demonstrate in flight, by using GA aircraft and Rotorcraft equipped with non-certified or specific on-board equipment, the following existing SESAR Solutions: Solution #51 – “Enhanced terminal operations with LPV procedures”, Solution #55 – “Precision approaches using GBAS CAT II/III”, Solution #103 – “Approach Procedure with vertical guidance”, Solution #113 – “Optimised Low Level IFR routes for rotorcraft”. The project will also focus on technological aspects, testing in flight the following products, already available within the consortium and suitably customized to fit the above listed SESAR Solutions: GNSS EGNOS and GBAS navigation algorithms able to guarantee the applicable RNP; Portable non certified Primary Flight Display to support pilot decisions and operations. The live flight trials will be conducted at two different sites and using three different aircrafts (two fixed-wing and one rotary aircraft). Flight tests data and information will be collected and analysed by taking into account relevant applicable SESAR Key Performance Areas and suitably performance indices. Performance evaluation and lessons learnt will represent the outcome of the project and will be made available to support regulation, standardisation and certification activities, as well as the integration of GA and rotorcraft with commercial aviation.

With aviation traffic reaching unprecedent levels, surveillance is a critical service for ensuring operations safety and for improving airspace and airport capacity to accommodate the increasing traffic forecast. ASTONISH objective is to develop new surveillance solutions to sustain the growth of the European aviation sector using innovative technologies, addressing the peculiar challenges of airborne and ground traffic management. ASTONISH consortium identified three critical solutions: ground-based systems for enroute and terminal areas surveillance, aircraft-based alternate surveillance (A-SUR) technology, and airport and aircraft-based surveillance sensing systems for ground operations. ASTONISH will investigate the use of an LDACS-based passive multistatic radar system and a network of distributed active radar systems to increase safety and capacity of sectors not covered by primary or secondary surveillance services, while providing a robust backup solution for non-cooperative surveillance. These solutions are expected to be cost-effective and environmental-friendly, built on services offered by LDACS to deliver a fully integrated CNS solution. A-SUR solution will leverage the Hyperconnected ATM concept to use existing and potential new datalink channels such SATCOM, LDACS, VDLM2, 5G and LTE as alternative means for downlinking aircraft surveillance data. The objective is to relieve the congestion on the 1030 MHz and 1090 MHz frequencies used by SSR, ADS-B, and TCAS, offering a secure and robust solution for cooperative surveillance with limited impact on surveillance infrastructures and avionics systems. ASTONISH solution for improving aircraft safety during ground operation will investigate new sensing systems such as lidars, radars, and vision-based sensor at aircraft and airport level, improving ground operation safety and airport resilience by increasing the situational awareness of the pilots and air traffic controllers under all-weather conditions.

In SENECA, eleven academic and industrial aerospace entities from all over Europe have teamed up to address the challenges raised in the call LC-MG-1-15-2020 “Towards global environmental regulation of supersonic aviation”. The consortium is considering the forthcoming market entry of a new generation of supersonic aircraft. However, it is assumed that the first new generation of supersonic aircraft will not be able to fly over land with supersonic speed, i.e. will not have completely solved the problem of the supersonic boom. Therefore, the missions under consideration for this project will be supersonic over water and subsonic over land. As a consequence, SENECA will mainly focus on noise and emissions in the vicinity of airports and the global climate impact of supersonic aircraft. SENECA aims at developing deepened understanding and detailed modelling for the emissions, the LTO noise, and the global environmental impact of supersonic aircraft. Building on this, the development of beyond state-of-the-art technologies to further reduce the environmental impact of supersonic aviation will be enabled. SENECA will contribute its project results to the ICAO level discussions, in order to scientifically accompany and strengthen the European perspective on the necessary regulations for novel supersonic aircraft. Key milestones of the project dissemination and exploitation plan are aligned to the CAEP work program and agenda, and the whole project plan is designed to work towards these milestones.