Standards as enablers of innovation in the aviation industry

The aviation industry is a cornerstone of global connectivity, enabling the movement of people and goods across vast distances with unprecedented speed and efficiency. It is also an industry characterised by high complexity and stringent safety requirements. However, the aviation industry is evolving at an unprecedented pace, driven by technological advancements, regulatory changes and shifting global priorities. Standards play a crucial role in facilitating the adoption of these new technologies by providing a clear framework for their implementation.

While standards are often perceived as restrictive, they play a crucial role in enabling innovation in the aviation sector, fostering innovation, ensuring safety and promoting global interoperability and international harmonisation. For air traffic management, standards ensure the seamless integration of air traffic control systems worldwide, enabling safe and efficient navigation through increasingly busy skies.

A crucial aspect of our work is the link between research and development (R&D) activities and deployment. This connection is evident in many of our focus areas, facilitated through the expertise of our members and our close partnerships with the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, the SESAR Deployment Manager, the Alliance for Zero Emission Aviation (AZEA), and various R&D projects as well as key organisations like EUROCONTROL.

One of the primary roles of standards in ATM is to ensure global interoperability. The aviation industry is by nature international, with aircraft flying globally and air traffic controllers coordinating flights over vast distances. Hence, there must be a high level of interoperability between the various ATM systems in different countries.

Standards facilitate this interoperability by providing common protocols and procedures that all stakeholders can follow. For example, ICAO's Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP) provides a comprehensive framework for the modernisation of ATM systems worldwide, with a focus on interoperability, including standards for communication, navigation and surveillance systems that ensure aircraft can move seamlessly from one country's airspace to another.

Our collaboration with partner standards-developing organisations (SDOs) is central to ensuring that our standards are globally accepted and applicable. Over half of our activities are conducted in collaboration with organisations like RTCA and SAE International. These partnerships result in technically identical and globally applicable standards, minimising administrative overheads and representing the consensus of both organisations’ members.

Interoperability is particularly important in the context of emerging technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and innovative aerial services (IAS). These technologies will revolutionise the aviation industry by introducing new modes of transport and new business models. However, for UAVs and IAS to be integrated into the existing aviation infrastructure, they must adhere to clear standards to enable smooth operations.

By establishing these standards, the aviation industry is laying the groundwork for the further growth of these innovative aerial services. Our WG-105 and WG-112 are working hand in hand with many other groups to develop the standards to lay down specific requirements for communication, navigation and surveillance, as well as standards for safety and security, ensuring that these new vehicles can be integrated safely and efficiently into existing airspace.

Innovation will accelerate rapidly in the next decade, and standardisation should not be seen as a burden but as an indispensable enabler of innovation, as the commercial success and economic impact of R&D results will only be realised by a successful transfer of these results into innovative products, processes and services. These standards are not static; they evolve over time to reflect advancements in technology, changes in regulatory requirements and the emergence of new safety and security concerns.

This dynamic nature makes them powerful enablers of innovation.

In Europe, innovation for the air traffic management domain is concentrated in the SESAR programme. To deliver the Digital European Sky, the SESAR programme is designed as an innovation pipeline: exploratory research, industrial research and validation, fast-track and demonstrators are set up in a way to transform R&D into tangible solutions. It is widely recognised that standardisation is critical to ensuring that the outcomes of SESAR research and innovation become an operational reality in line with the performance needs of the aviation industry.

A great example that illustrates the iterative approach to standardisation is the subject of remote tower. Remote towers, an innovation in air traffic management, allow air traffic controllers to manage airport operations from a different location, leveraging advanced optical and sensor systems. ED-240 "Minimum Aviation System Performance Specification (MASPS) for Remote Tower Optical Systems” standardises the performance specifications for these systems. By providing clear guidelines, ED- 240 facilitates the integration of remote tower systems into the aviation infrastructure, promoting safety, efficiency and interoperability across different airports and countries. This standard is essential for ensuring that remote towers provide a level of service equivalent to or better than traditional control towers.

As the R&D work continues to progress, ED-240 is evolving to include more functionalities, such as augmented with visual tracking-based object motion indications, automatic PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) object-following functionality and non-optical surveillance sensors, along with recording and playback requirements, included in the most recent version of the standard ED-240B. And work continues in our WG-100 to enhance the document even further. This is recognised worldwide, as we know ED-240 is today the global standard for remote tower implementation.

Regulation is a critical aspect of the aviation industry, with safety being the foremost concern. Standards are closely aligned with these regulations, providing the technical details necessary for compliance.

Standards enable innovation by providing a clear pathway for new technologies to be certified and brought to market. Without standards, the certification process for new technologies would be ad-hoc and unpredictable, creating uncertainty for innovators and potentially stifling the development of new products and services. By adhering to established standards, innovators can more easily demonstrate that their technologies meet regulatory requirements, speeding up the certification process and reducing the time to market.

EUROCAE works closely with EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and other regulators to ensure the standards development work programme is complementary to regulations, providing to the community a set of robust and complete tools to demonstrate regulatory compliance.

With the new regulation on ATM/ANS ground equipment, it is expected that EASA will rely on industry standards to support the implementation of this new framework. Proposals are being discussed on how this can be best achieved, agree on priorities, pursuing a collaborative approach between the regulator and the industry.

As ATM systems become more digital and interconnected, they also become more vulnerable to cyber threats. Ensuring the resilience and cybersecurity of ATM systems is a top priority for the industry, and standards play a critical role in this area.

Standards for cybersecurity in ATM are being developed to address the unique challenges of protecting critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks. These standards provide guidelines for securing communication networks, protecting sensitive data, and ensuring the integrity of ATM systems. By following these standards, ATM providers can reduce the risk of cyber incidents and ensure the continued safe operation of the airspace.

Our WG-72 has been working jointly with RTCA SC-216 for many years to develop the relevant standards in support of the entire aviation supply chain.

The aviation industry is increasingly focused on reducing its environmental impact, and air traffic management has a critical role to play in this effort. Efficient ATM can significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions by optimising flight paths, reducing delays, and minimising the time aircraft spend in holding patterns.

Innovations in ATM, such as Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) and Continuous Descent Operations (CDO), are helping to achieve these environmental goals. These are made possible by international standards that define the requirements for navigation accuracy, integrity and availability.

EUROCAE maintains cooperative arrangements with the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking as well as the SESAR Deployment Manager to ensure that standardisation requirements are embedded at every stage of the SESAR lifecycle (definition, research and development, and deployment) and that standards-development is done collaboratively as one team between all industry stakeholders. These are complemented by many collaboration agreements with key partner organisations such as EUROCONTROL, industry and professional staff organisations as well as the wealth of knowledge of close to 500 member organisations.

Innovative and developing domains such as ATM require inputs from stakeholders across the innovation cycle, and we are glad to see this synchronised effort in Europe and for EUROCAE to be an integral part of the innovation pipeline. Achieving consensus on complex subjects and requirements is not an easy task. By fostering collaboration, robust, relevant and timely standards enable the future of innovation in ATM, paving the way for a safer, more efficient and more sustainable aviation industry and continuing our journey of ATM modernisation and digitalisation.

Our work is driven by the expertise and dedication of our members, collaboration with our partners and close engagement with regulators and the broader aviation community. Together, we can ensure that the aviation industry remains safe, efficient and sustainable, now and in the future. As the aviation industry continues to evolve, the need for standards will only grow.

At EUROCAE, our commitment is to develop high-quality, consensus-based, relevant standards that support the needs of the aviation community. The annual update of our Technical Work Programme (TWP) is a critical tool in this process. It allows us to adjust our priorities and activities in response to emerging needs and challenges. With the close of the European ATM Master Plan update campaign, the TWP will be linked more directly with the strategic deployment objectives.

At EUROCAE, our mission is and has always been to develop high-quality, relevant standards that support the needs of the aviation community, creating standards that meet both European and global priorities. Join us at EUROCAE, collaborate with top experts, and make a lasting impact on the aviation industry. Visit our website to learn more about our working groups and how you can get involved. Together, let's continue to drive innovation and excellence in aviation.