Unto more flexible and agile navigation systems

With his extensive experience in the industry, his vision of the future and his commitment to technology, Thales is contributing to the development of the NextGen and SESAR programs, promoted by the United States and Europe, to face the challenge of congestion in skies and airports. In the case of NextGen, Thales collaborates with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), through its test automation systems, promoting the implementation of a ground-air data transmission infrastructure.  

Thales, a reference provider of the VOR radio navigation system -which allows to monitor the position of an aircraft at all times- and the Instrument Landing System (ILS) -vital in situations of reduced visibility-, is a key partner in the teams led by ITT Exelis and Metron in the SE2020 program. This helps the FAA meet the objectives required by NextGen, in terms of research and engineering systems.   In this way, Thales contributes its knowledge in the fields of automation, navigation, surveillance, simulation or avionics. As part of its participation in Exelis, for example, the company has supplied 1,200 ADS-B equipment throughout the country, as well as the MultiSensor monitoring function TopSky-Tracking, which are already using airlines such as JetBlue to overcome storms in Florida, reducing flight time and fuel consumption.
 

SESAR Program

In parallel, Thales collaborates in the SESAR program with the aim of modernizing the current European air navigation infrastructure and developing new alternatives that help reduce operating and maintenance costs. Its contribution, a third of the total of the large manufacturers and twice as much as the second in contribution, aims to ensure the interoperability and global harmonization of air traffic management systems.   The company, which has 250 experts working on the development of the technologies of the SESAR program, aims to improve the customer experience, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, increase predictability and balance the relationship between supply and demand. To this end, it is transferring state-of-the-art techniques to air traffic management centers, airports, communication systems, navigation and surveillance systems, and meteorological forecasting.   Among the contributions of Thales include the implementation of SWIM information management technologies and the emphasis on sharing data on initial trajectories.
 

AMAN and PBN systems

Likewise, the commitment to advanced detection and conflict resolution tools that promote free trajectory and a more efficient use of airspace, or AMAN and PBN systems, to facilitate that the airplanes make more direct flights with less impact for environment.   In the section on security in airport environments, Thales is a pioneer in the development of intelligent and highly efficient systems for the detection of UAVS that allow facing new security problems and threats for air traffic. This is true, especially in the approach to airports, due to the increasingly widespread use of unmanned aerial vehicles.