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URL = http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,442773,00.html
Flying a light aircraft will
soon be as easy - and safer than - driving a car, according to aviation experts. A consortium of aircraft companies, university researchers, the US government
and NASA is developing a system which will allow the public to fly planes after
a few minutes of rudimentary training. The group is combining advances in
aircraft design with computer-assisted flight and tracking devices to develop a
prototype of a system they have named the 'Highway in the Sky'. 'These improvements will make flying so intuitive that any dummy will be able
to do it,' said Keith McCrea, policy coordinator for the Virginia Department of
Aviation. After a short briefing, a 12-year-old boy recently took off in and
landed a light aircraft using the system.
Even for today's private pilots, flying is becoming more and more like
driving; the cabin of the SR20 four-seater made by Cirrus Design in Minnesota,
for example, is similar to the inside of a family saloon.
In place of the usual dizzying array of dials, the SR20 has a 26cm video
display fed by global positioning system (GPS) data that provides a picture of
the terrain beneath the aircraft, with airport, route and weather information
superimposed on it. The number of controls has been pared down to a minimum.
Another company, Moller International in California, is developing the Skycar,
a vehicle capable of vertical take-off and landing. It will be able to fly as
high as 30,000ft and carry four people at speeds of up to 400mph. Moller says
that once it is in mass production the Skycar will cost the same as a mid-range
BMW.
The company's president, Paul Moller, said: 'It's our intention that
it will eventually evolve into a completely automated form of transportation,
making you a passenger, not a pilot.'
A private pilot currently has to complete several hundred hours in the air to
become fully trained for most conditions. Even preparing for a simple journey
involves poring over maps, studying forecasts and calculating wind speeds and
fuel consumption.
Each stage of the flight requires the manipulation of several controls,
monitoring dozens of gauges, liaising with air traffic control and compensating
for weather conditions. 'This could change dramatically over the next decade,'
said David Freedman, author of a study to be published next month by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
'The general goal of these programmes will be to make small aircraft as easy
and safe to operate as cars - maybe even more so - and almost as inexpensive.'
The NASA-funded 'Highway in the Sky' uses satellite positioning, digital maps
and constantly updated information about air traffic movements to guide a pilot
through a series of hoops, or along a dotted line displayed in simulated 3-D on
a screen. 'I could take someone with no training and in five minutes have him
flying a plane all the way through a landing,' said John Hansman, an MIT
aeronautics researcher. While researching his article for MIT's Technology
Review magazine, Freedman challenged Hansman to do just that, with his
12-year-old son Alex. When Alex was shown the direction to fly on the type of
GPS screen used by private pilots, he called it 'the most confusing thing' he
had ever seen.
Then Hansman switched on the 'Highway in the Sky'. Displayed in bright
colours was an uncluttered image of the terrain with two parallel lines
superimposed upon it, along with a blue cone off to the right. The lines defined
the flight path and the cone was the destination airport.
'OK,' said Alex, as he sat at the controls. 'So I just need to aim at the
cone, right?'
His father described the ease with which his son then put them on course:
'With the flair of a video game master homing his X-Wing fighter in on the Death
Star's lone vulnerable hatch, Alex immediately banked the plane to bring the
cone to the middle of the flight path.' On the final approach, Hansman needed
only to issue a few verbal instructions for Alex to make a safe landing.
Along with 'Highway in the Sky', a joint project is under way to develop 'smartports'
by providing computerised air traffic control at hundreds of small, underused
airfields, so that light aircraft could be automatically kept precise distances
apart and guided during take-off and landing.
The Skycar looks like a cross between a sports car and a tiny jet fighter. On
take-off a blast of air from four large power pods, which contain
counter-rotating engines attached to turbine blades, is directed downward by
louvres, allowing the Skycar to lift straight up.
It can be driven on the road at about 35mph and is compact enough to be
parked in a garage. The cabin can be pressurised for high-level flight and in an
emergency parachutes would lower the craft and its occupants to safety.
jump to section of article in Technology Review March 2001