Fly2Plan – Enabling a new model aviation data system-of-systems

Fly2Plan - _Enabling a new model aviation data system-of-systems_ seeks to develop a new model for aviation data exchange to allow new entrants in urban air mobility and autonomous operations to participate. By researching the use of modern and emerging internet technologies of public cloud infrastructure and distributed ledger technology, the decentralised operating models built over generations of pioneering aviation discovery can be preserved, whilst transforming operating resilience and costs for the community.

Fly2Plan directly addresses the following themes:

* ATM&UTM: Fly2Plan vision is to develop a set of open-source Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technologies and platform that underpin all aspects of airport, ATM, UTM, flight and UAV operations based on distributed ledger technology such as Blockchain.
* Digital Infrastructure: solution for the transformation of legacy systems into agile, on-cloud interoperable platforms, to enable secure plug-and-play interactions between partners in the ecosystem.
* Digital Communication Systems: as digital data and voice communication systems mature in the ATC environment, a natural evolution to more data traffic and less voice will occur. Fy2Plan offers the tools in order to enable this transformation.
* Viable, challenging, use cases: a variety of users will benefit from Fly2Plan technology: drone operators, traffic controllers, UTM platform providers, ANSPs, airlines, airports, military, baggage handling providers, ground handling providers... As part of this, end users are represented within the consortium and the rest have been approached during proposal preparation to gather their insights and needs and will be part of WP5 conversations to refine use cases. There are several of them already being considered:

1. Flight Plan and Operation of Autonomous UAV BVLOS in non-segregated air space
2. New Capacity Model definition, with headroom quantified
3. Trajectories management, enabling fuel burn reduction in stacks and rewarding excellence in planning.
4. Vehicle technologies enablement -- autonomous flight (UAVs, eVTOLs, automated aircraft,...) will not happen if there is no provision of data such as flight data (FIXM), aeronautical info (AIXM) and weather (WIXM) from an open, reliable system-of-systems as the one Fly2Plan will develop.

The Consortium is well balanced and formed by thirteen partners from across multiple sectors and disciplines. Within these partners, big corporates, start-ups and research institutions are included:

* Operations: Heathrow Airport, IAG, Consortiq, Altitude Angel, Cranfield University, NATS
* Technology: SITA, IBS, Snowflake Software, TEKTowr, Rockport Software
* Research: Oxford University, Cranfield University
* Product Management Office: Digital Catapult.

The project is divided into five costed 'Industrial research' work packages.

* WP1 -- Product Design and Project Management
* WP2 -- Governance model definition
* WP3 -- Development of the new open-source DLT platform\]
* WP4 -- Trust Assurance Mechanisms
* WP5 -- Communication, IPR strategy and Phase III preparation

The project has obtained letters of support from relevant stakeholders as: Eurocontrol, ACI, UAE GCAA, Gatwick Airport, Microsoft and the Industry Resilience Group interested in the value Fly2Plan could unlock for them and want to monitor the progress of the project.

The project has a total duration of 15 months and total cost of £4,670,932, where partners are co-funding 51%.