2017 - the Safest Year in Civil Aviation

In a year where the air traffic and flights registered a significant increase, 2017 was registered as the safest year in aviation so far. And for the first time since 1957 there were no accidents or fatalities involving passenger jets.

To a certain extent, standards contributed to this positive development.

With the availability of minimum performance standards, industry gets a guideline on what is considered to be state-of-the-art technology and best industry practice.

Standards not only prescribe the requirements that a system has to fulfil, they also describe the methods of testing, validation and verification needed to actually prove that the system conforms to the standard.

A one-stop-shop for developers, manufacturers, implementers and users to determine whether the system is the right one.

Finally, with cooperation between the various standard developing organisations harmonisation is ensured on a global scale. So are 50% of all EUROCAE Working Groups joint with RTCA and another 10% with SAE. True global cooperation resulting in technically identical standards for global aviation.

We are proud that EUROCAE and its members have contributed to make 2017 the safest year in aviation. We will continue to strive for a performance that will allow us to keep the safety level as high as possible.

EUROCAE Secretariat

EUROCAE WG-108 "ATN/IPS" Call for participation

EUROCAE has launched a Call for Participation to inform interested parties about an activity to be launched shortly and to provide a possibility to nominate project participants.

Participation to this new activity is still possible. If your organisation is interested in a contribution to this activity, please complete the registration form available here.

The Kick-Off meeting for WG-108 is scheduled for 1-2 February 2018 in Toulouse, France.

The Calling Notice and the agenda for the meeting are available following the link.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The EUROCAE Council on 22 December 2017 has approved the creation of this new activity. In line with the approved Terms of Reference (ToR), WG-108 is tasked to develop Guidance on ATN/IPS end-to-end interoperability and certification.

The role of EUROCAE WG-108 is to provide European standards for

ATN/IPS. As the ATN/IPS system represents a complete network with avionics and ground systems, EUROCAE should provide guidance on end-to-end certification.

EUROCAE WG-108 will prepare a guidance document to ensure that the ATN/IPS deployment answers to the need in terms for safety, security and performance.

In order to perform these activities, the WG-108 will synchronize with RTCA, with the objective to work as a joint group (for common deliverables such as profiles) and will get inputs from ICAO as the ICAO ATN/IPS standards are being updated to address the Air/Ground part.

WG-108 will also have to coordinate with EASA about the needed guidance for certification and with the AEEC IPS group.

For any additional information please contact Adrian Cioranu at adrian.cioranu@eurocae.net.  

EUROCAE WG-98 launches new activity on Return Link Service 

18-19 April, Saint-Denis, France

Several aircraft disappearances occurred over water, including Malaysian MH370, for which the potential survivors, the wreckage and the flight recorders have not been recovered. As the long-lasting or non-recovery of recorders greatly reduces the likelihood of discovering the actual cause of accidents, and in order to improve the recovery of wreckage and flight recorders following an accident or incident, it is necessary to improve performance standards for new-generation Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) and their means of activation.

In addition, remote activation from the ground of ELT offers the possibility to localise in-flight a non-cooperative aircraft and therefor participates to the ICAO Global Aeronautical Distress & Safety System (GADSS) concept of operations.

EUROCAE WG-98 will begin work on the Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards for Aircraft Emergency Locator Transmitter Return Link Service

A Call for Participation to inform interested parties about this new activity and to provide a possibility to nominate project participants.

If your company is interested in a contribution to this activity, please complete the registration form the latest by Friday,  2 March 2018.

The Kick-off meeting of this new activity within WG-98 is scheduled for 18-19 April 2018 in EUROCAE premises.

For further information please contact  Anna von Groote at anna.vongroote@eurocae.net

EUROCAE and IFATCA sign MoU

On 30 January 2018, EUROCAE and IFATCA at the first digitalisation conference in Geneva, have sigend a MoU to strengthen their cooperation and to continue developing aviation industry standards together.

The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA) and EUROCAE have agreed to work together on developing aviation industry standards, with a particular focus on standards for air traffic management. The Memorandum of Understanding enables the two organisations to address relevant issues and will speed up the implementation of new technologies to ensure safe, seamless and efficient air traffic flow in Europe.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) provides a framework for cooperation between the two organisations, including exchange of information, sharing expertise and best practices, and cross-participation in working groups on the future of Communication, Navigation and Surveillance and Air Traffic Management.

As a first step, IFATCA joined EUROCAE as a Full Member end of 2017 in recognition of the effort of both organisations to enhance aviation and promote strong cooperation in developing industry standards to support global and regional interoperability of air traffic management (ATM) systems.

IFATCA Executive Vice President Europe, Tom Laursen said: “The development of technical standards are of great importance for improving safety, efficiency and regularity in air traffic. IFATCA is happy, as a professional organisation, to be fully engaged and partnered with EUROCAE”.
IFATCA will join EUROCAE Working Groups on ACAS, RPAS and Remote Towers.

For further information please contact Anna von Groote at anna.vongroote@eurocae.net

70th meeting of EUROCAE TAC

16-17 January, Madrid, Spain

The 70th meeting of the EUROCAE Technical Advisory Committee took place on 16 and 17 January 2018 at the IATA premises in Madrid.  
TAC approved updated Terms of Reference for:

• WG-14 Environment
  Alignment of target dates with RTCA & addition of a new deliverable: Minimum Standard Environmental Test Conditions (categories) and Applicable Test Procedures for Ground Based Equipment; to be developed jointly with RTCA;
   
• WG-67 VoIP for ATM
  Alignment of target dates;
   
• WG-80 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Systems
  Addition of a new deliverable: Joint report on general safety aspects and benefits of on-board hydrogen storage and fuel cells for aircraft applications; to be developed jointly with SAE;
   
• WG-82 New Air-Ground Datalink Technologies
  Addition of ED-242 revision A and ED-243 revision A; to be carried out jointly with RTCA; 

• WG-96 Wireless Onboard Avionics Network 
  Alignment of target date for MOPS to RTCA ToR;
   
• ​WG-102 GEN-SUR SPR
  Alignment of target date

In addition, the TAC agreed on the procedure for a 5-year periodic review of all published EDs.
TAC also reviewed a proposal for a new activity to standardise systems of characterisation of the meteorological contaminants on runways, and made a recommendation to the Council to create a new WG.

The next TAC meetings will take place as follows:

• TAC#72, 21 March 2018
• TAC#73, 15 – 16 May 2018
• TAC#74, 29 – 30 August 2018.

For further information please contact anna.vongroote@eurocae.net

Welcome to new TAC member

On 5 January 2018, the Council appointed for the first time ever a TAC member representing the UAS domain.

Sylvain Pouillard, Safran Electronics & Defense, was appointed as TAC member for a 3 year, renewable term. He is presently senior technical advisor for UAS at Safran and involved in the design, operations and flight testing of UAS since 2002 as an engineer and flight crew member. He took part to the Sperwer UAS program and was then the technical leader of the Patroller UAS program from 2008 to 2015. He has also been involved in several projects related to insertion of UAVs in civilian airspace, UAS operational  and airworthiness rules.

Sylvain said “I am proud to join the TAC as a UAS specialist and be able to contribute to the development of

this new fast-growing field of the aerospace world.” 

The EUROCAE Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is composed of 12 specialist members, selected in order to achieve a balanced representation of EUROCAE interests.

In late 2017, the Council added a new seat on the TAC for an expert representing Unmanned Aircraft Systems to take into account the growing importance of this sector for EUROCAE activities and to enhance the understanding and consideration of their special perspective in our work.

EUROCAE documents

EUROCAE recently published:

• ED-148  "Guidance to Achieve ATM Validation Platforms Interoperability"
   
• ED-248 "Guide to Civil Aircraft Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)"
   
• ED-249 "Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards for Aircraft State Awareness Synthetic Vision Systems"

All EUROCAE publications are accessible by clicking the button below