Dave Curtis from NATS, giving a talk entitled "Unlocking the future of Aviation", at the 2023 DroneX Tradeshow and Conference, Excel, London.
Big jets, bustling airports and exciting destinations may be the conventional image of aviation. But the industry is on the cusp of profound change, with eVTOL aircraft and mass drone operations set to transform our skies in a way we haven’t seen for a hundred years. Underpinning that new world we need solid foundations, and we’re developing NATS OpenAir to unlock the future of aviation in the UK, revolutionise the way we use airspace and accommodate a new generation of flight. In the existing aviation landscape, NATS plays a crucial role in ensuring safe and efficient air travel. We provide a web of services that grants access to critical information for all airspace users, from private pilots to commercial airlines, military aircraft, and more. These services are the invisible infrastructure of our skies, just like the road network and electricity lines that underpin our daily lives. The emerging industry of new aircraft types like eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles) and uncrewed drones operate today in segregated airspace on a limited basis. Only specific and restricted-use cases are possible, such as blood sample delivery trials and infrastructure surveillance. With the right infrastructure in place, they can do so much more. BVLOS flights are possible today, but only in specially segregated airspace. NATS envisions a future where different types of aircraft can coexist seamlessly in a single unified airspace. NATS OpenAir is our proposal for achieving that safely, sustainably and securely. The core idea is to extend NATS’ current services, leveraging automation and digitisation to provide vital data and network services to both existing and new airspace users. Central to this vision is an underpinning aeronautical data exchange platform, that facilitates data sharing between operators within specific blocks of airspace.
Size: 3400px × 4062px
Location: ExCeL London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1XL
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, aeronautical, air, airspace, aviation, conference, control, curtis, data, dave, drones, dronex, electric, excel, exchange, full, future, general, integration, landing, leading, london., manager, national, nats, openair, operations, platform, provider, services, services., tradeshow, traffic, uks, uncrewed, unlocking, users, vehicles, vertical
