IEEE/AIAA Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) 2011

CONFERENCE THEME: Aircraft have very long life spans, in some cases remaining active in the National Airspace System for several generations. While legacy aircraft are still active, more and more modern civil transports with advanced avionics and new uninhabited aircraft are entering the civil and military fleets. This poses a challenge for the aviation industry, which is working to implement new flight operations that enhance airspace capacity and efficiency, while accommodating multiple generations of aircraft with a wide range of missions and capabilities. Some legacy aircraft have limited automation and performance capabilities, and were built to perform with fairly independent flight operations. Modern commercial airliners are equipped with highly-capable flight management systems, digital communication systems and surveillance systems. Remotely piloted vehicles and Uninhabited Aircraft Systems (UAS) were designed to be flown without a pilot on-board but must maintain safe flight operations if integrated into the international airspace. The theme of this conference is to highlight solutions that close the generation gap and allow safe co-existence and interoperability among diverse generations of aircraft.