AVOID – The story of a successful ‘Testing Together’ Flight Test Trial

Karl-Heinz Mai, Experimental Flight Test Pilot, Airbus Development Flight Test Department, Toulouse, France

Abstract

On April 2010, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland and the accompanying cloud of volcanic ash forced most countries in northern Europe to shut their airspace for 5 days, grounded more than 100,000 flights and affected an estimated 10 million travelers.

This event revealed to what extent our society and economy rely on the availability of a safe and efficient air transport system and how fragile it still remains when faced with the complexity of atmospheric conditions Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector sensor technology is used on satellites to detect volcanic ash clouds.

The development of an aircraft onboard sensor for volcanic ash detection would possibly make flying around volcanic ash as routine as severe Wx avoidance

The presentation is about a successful flight test trial for the development of a volcanic ash detection sensor, ‘testing together’ of the laboratory team of University of Duesseldorf, the Airbus A340 and A400 flight test team for sensor employment and artificial ash cloud creation, the Diamond Aircraft flight test team for ash cloud penetration and density measurement and a Corvette photo and video chase.