A new visionary European project (PPlane) implements a systematic approach to radical and novel ideas for Personal Air Transport System (PATS).

Personal Air Transport Systems is a new paradigm in air transport. The personal air vehicle is analogous to the private car in terms of accessibility and ease of operation, yet delivers the benefits of speed and routing efficiencies that are only possible via direct-to-destination flight. As shown in recent studies, air transport is anticipated to evolve towards smaller aircraft exhibiting individual air transportation properties in order to avoid the increasing congestion on European roads.

The Personal Plane project (PPlane) emphasizes environmentally responsible design, including noise and gas emission reduction, green fuels, and energy efficiency, and is expected to increase the savings and sustainability resulting from more efficient travel. The duration of this European Commission (EC) 7th framework project is 30 months with a total budget is 4.4 MEuro divided among 13 partners.

According to the EC project officer, Mr. José Hernandez, PPlane fits well with the EC Aeronautics strategy of "pioneering" and "revolutionary" projects that will pave the road for future European based air transport systems.

PPlane project is partially based on the findings of previous European R&D projects, including:"Out-of-the-Box"; EPATS, SATS and EQuiPT. Additional related projects that will be considered are: SESAR; NextGen and INOUI.

PPlane main design and selection criteria include: "Security and safety", "Automation and Control", "Environment", and "Human Factors". In each of these domains, ambitious quantitative targets are set including a drastic reduction of noise and emission, substantial increase in fuel efficiency, a safety level comparable to the one achieved by conventional airliners and low cost similar to "commuter airline ticket".

The project is led by Claude Le Tallec from ONERA (France) with the assistance of Dr. Moshe Harel from Intergam Communications (Israel.) PPlane's consortium includes organizations from 11 European countries from different aviation domains in industry, research and academy including the Israel Aerospace Industries (Israel), Airnet (Slovenia), Bologna University and CIRA (Italy), Brno University (Czech Republic), Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), German Aerospace Center-DLR (Germany), Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (Spain), National Aerospace Laboratory – NLR(Netherlands), the University of Patras (Greece), REA-TECH Engineering (Hungary).

By joining forces, the partners in PPlane will propose directions for future European RTD actions and funding towards the concepts which are found to yield the highest social and economic benefit to the community.

Additional external stakeholders, such as regulatory experts, will be invited to the project advisory board to assist the consortium in strategic decisions as well as dissemination of the findings.

The successful introduction of Personal Air Transport Systems to the European transport systems will ensure mobility of people and goods, stimulating safe and secure commuting, while fighting to reduce the unwanted effects of traffic congestion, including environmental damage, social exclusion and economic losses.

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See also

EC Research Information Center