The European Certiflight project successfully held its third Advisory Board, a key meeting that brought together project partners and industry experts to assess the project's progress as it nears the end of its first stage of development. The meeting took place at the National Institute for Aerospace Research Elie Carafoli (INCAS) in Bucharest, Romania.
The meeting was organised by the partner Aria United, responsible for the business activities of Certiflight.
The Third Advisory Board meeting was focused around presenting the technological status of Certiflight solution and exploring improvements that can be made on the Business Plan, in order to prepare the insertion of the product to the market. We also presented our gratitude to INCAS for hosting us and helping organise the event in ideal conditions.
Alina Anton
Description of the project
The meeting started with a brief overview of the project, highlighting its purpose and objectives. The use cases considered and the UTM services implemented within the project were presented, setting up the stage for the interactive sessions that followed.
Moving the Advisory Board across three countries and engaging with local expert communities proved to be an excellent approach for gathering input and evaluating the project's outcomes. Beyond technical considerations, insightful discussions on business opportunities took place, further confirming market interest in the Certiflight solution.
Alberto Mennella
Regulation and standards
In the aviation sector, standards and rules to ensure safety are a fundamental component. Therefore, this topic was one of the most relevant points discussed during the meeting.
In this regard, the European project proposes the use of CORUS U-Space Flight Rules (UFR) as a set of simplified rules applicable exclusively in U-Space airspace. This system is designed for remotely piloted aircraft, where the pilot has no direct visibility of the environment. To ensure safety, the pilot must be informed of the relative positions of nearby traffic by other means, known as digital aviation.
The importance of industry standards not only to achieve the required levels of safety for the Certiflight services, but also to commercialise such services and related equipment after the termination of the project.
Filippo Tomasello
Validation campaign
The next topic was the validation campaign carried out in late 2024 and early 2025, as well as the conclusions and lessons learned. The purpose of this campaign was to test the viability of the developed technology in the use cases tested.
First interactive session: Certiflight report and GA device
The first interactive session comprised a demonstration of the Certiflight report, giving the participants the opportunity to suggest enhancements and feature requests. It followed a discussion on the General Aviation device and the conflict resolution algorithm implemented to ensure safety in U-Space airspace.
During an interactive session, the latest versions of the Certiflight report and the Device for General Aviation were presented. The experts highlighted the need for multiple trajectory pictures and customisable statistics fields in the report, stressing the importance of safeguarding sensitive and confidential information. For enhancements to the General Aviation device, they suggested incorporating an interactive display, warning icons, blinking LEDs to alert pilots, and estimates of nearby aircraft trajectories.
Francesco Russo
Second interactive session: Certiflight go-to-market strategy
The future of the project was also at the centre of the meeting, with partners taking part in an interactive discussion on the business opportunities offered by Certiflight. This exchange of ideas allowed an assessment of the potential of the technology and how it can be implemented on a large scale.
During the Business session, we explored two main topics with implications for the Certiflight Business Plan: the user needs and adoption drivers, as well as the pricing models and distribution channels. The most important finding was that we should try implementing multiple Business Models (with different price ranges, to approach a broad diversity of customers), in parallel, to ensure both a steady evolution of the business in the long-term and a rapid adoption when entering the market.”
Eugen Popescu
Communication and dissemination
Besides the technical and innovation aspects, the partners stressed the importance of communication and dissemination strategies to ensure that the project reaches potential customers.
The three Advisory Board Workshops held during the project have been a key component of the communication and dissemination strategy. By bringing together relevant experts in the field and promoting interactive discussions we obtain valuable opinions and suggestions that have been instrumental in achieving the project goals. Holding them in different countries, has also contributed to the internationalisation of the project results. by considering different perspectives.
Manuel Oñate
Visit to the INCAS installation
The meeting was capped with a visit to the INCAS installation, where the participants in the Advisory Board had the opportunity to experience in first-person the investigation carried out in an aerospace research centre.
With the completion of the third Advisory Board, Certiflight is heading towards the last stretch of the first phase of project development, with an estimated completion date of May 2025.