Today is International Civil Aviation Day. Reason enough for us to commemorate this special day, which was established by the United Nations (UN) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 1996. The aim is to create worldwide awareness of the importance of civil aviation and to draw attention to its formative role in the social and economic development of the international community. A lot has happened in aviation since then. Every 5 years, Memorial Day is dedicated to a new theme. Since 2020, the current theme has been "Advancing Innovation for Global Aviation Development."
We, at Thales, turn leading-edge technologies into solutions that are both imaginative and resilient, human-centred and sustainable.
By 2030, 60% of the world's population will live in cities. This sustained growth in urban populations is expected to drive demand for innovative mobility solutions as ground transportation systems become increasingly congested. One way forward could be to offer a safe, sustainable and efficient alternative that makes optimum use of urban airspace.
Airbus Helicopters had unveiled a second-generation model of its CityAirbus NextGen air cab project in mid-November and signed a trilateral development agreement with Thales and Diehl Aerospace for its flight control computer, providing a safe and secure response to tomorrow's air mobility needs. The system selected by Airbus will combine Thales primary flight computers with secondary flight computers from Diehl. The choice of different flight computers will help improve flight safety and guarantee system integrity to comply with the new EASA regulation for eVTOL. Its first flight of a prototype is planned for 2023.
"We are thrilled to see that our close cooperation with Airbus and Diehl is once again delivering concrete results through an agreement that will add a whole new dimension to air mobility," said Yannick Assouad, Thales Executive Vice President, Avionics. "With this safe and innovative flight control solution, we are working together to build an airspace environment we can all trust."