In commercial aviation, few areas have evolved as significantly as the cockpit. Over the past 60 years, the cockpits of large commercial aircraft have evolved from requiring five crew members to just two. As a result, the possibility of reducing the crew to a single pilot has been discussed for decades. However, a key challenge remains the potential consequences of pilot incapacitation. Such an event could have hazardous or catastrophic consequences for an aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers, even in highly automated cockpits that include automatic diversion capabilities.

The SOLO project therefore aims to demonstrate and pave the way for the safe integration of single-pilot operations (SPO) in controlled airspace.

The purpose of the SOLO project is to develop an ATM concept for SPO, enabled by current Airbus and ATR cockpit concepts and supported by the technological building blocks of their airborne solutions, which continue to be developed through SESAR. These concepts include highly reliable pilot incapacitation detection and advanced diversion functions that can identify the most appropriate diversion airfield based on continuously updated criteria before and during the flight.

The concepts also include automatic hazard avoidance functions, covering weather and traffic, as well as automatic landing capabilities.

SOLO addresses the consequences of detected pilot incapacitation through:

• Means to communicate the pilot’s status and other relevant information via VHF synthetic voice communications and the transponder
• Transmission of the airborne-selected diversion airfield and associated trajectory through voice and data link channels
• Means for the airline flight operations center to coordinate, when necessary, in a reliable and secure manner with both the aircraft and ATC centers

These procedural and technical building blocks will be demonstrated through real-time simulations involving operational stakeholders, including air traffic controllers and supervisors, pilots, cockpit automation systems, and flight operations center operators.

SOLO also intends to progressively disseminate its results, which will be formalized in an SPR/INTEROP OSED. The main dissemination channels will include:

• From TRL 2 maturity onwards, engagement with relevant ICAO panels through information papers to begin de-risking the concept and preparing mindsets
• Once TRL 4 maturity is achieved, submission of working papers to relevant ICAO panels to support the long-term preparation of future procedures, processes, SARPs, and other standardization material
• Engagement with airline, pilot, and ANSP organizations to anticipate potential showstoppers as well as pilot selection and training needs
• Consultation with EASA, the FAA, and other regulatory bodies during the preparation of the TRL 4 SPR/INTEROP OSED to further de-risk the concept

Benefits

• Significant improvement in airspace user cost-efficiency through the reduction of direct operating costs from two pilots to one
• Operational safety maintained at at least current levels