ATR

Standard 3 avionics – flying into a more efficient future

ATR’s Senior Vice President of Engineering, Alessandro Amendola, explains that  the implementation of their latest avionics suite, Standard 3, certified in June 2017, represents the company’s desire to remain at the cutting edge of navigation aid tools.

The introduction of this new avionics package is emblematic of ATR’s culture of continuous innovation. Of course, at first glance, the primary beneficiaries of Standard 3’s new features will be pilots, who can look forward to a range of new features which will reduce their workload and enhance their situational awareness. The advantages delivered by these new avionics will also have a large impact on airlines’ operations. These technological advances will open up new routes and commercial opportunities as they allow ATR aircraft to land at previously inaccessible airports. They will also bring significant efficiency savings and also further reduce the environmental impact of our aircraft. ATR -600 series aircraft already enjoy a 40 per cent fuel burn advantage over their turboprop competitor.

Standard and optional features

Standard 3 is already in operation. Now airlines are able to take advantage of a Required Navigation Performance with Authorisation Required (RNP AR) 0.3/0.3, thanks

to the addition of an Inertial Reference System on the aircraft. Available as an option, this feature ensures precise operations in corridors with 0.3 NM half-width, for both departures and missed approaches, making it a huge aid for airlines operating in obstacle-ridden or otherwise challenging environments such as mountains and urban zones. Such precision also has an impact on the aircraft efficiency through the agglomeration of these marginal gains throughout repeated operations.

With Standard 3, the depiction of temporary flight plans directly on the Navigation Display is now possible. It also features an enhanced Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), to avoid overshoots and go-arounds when approaching at high speeds, close to the destination runway or at a high interception angle – reducing fuel burn by optimising landings.

Futureproofing

While these standard and optional features are already available as part of the new avionics suite, ATR is also doing everything it can to futureproof the new avionics suite by embedding into Standard 3 provision for several state-of-the-art features. One example is T3CAS, which combines a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), a Terrain Avoidance Warning System (TAWS) and a Mode S transponder in a single unit, thereby saving on weight, space and power consumption. Reducing weight and power consumption is going to reduce the aircraft fuel burn, which in turn is going to reduce CO₂ emissions.

Standard 3 will also be compatible with Skylens. This is a head-mounted pilot visor, developed with supplier ELBIT, which displays basic flight data, a synthetic vision system plus an enhanced vision system based on infrared sensors to reduce minima. This means that pilots will  be able to access airports in challenging conditions that might previously have necessitated aborted landings,  re-routes or go-arounds. In addition to improving the pilot’s workload, this will also optimise fuel efficiency during any operations that feature challenging conditions and the combination of repeated performance improvements will have a positive impact on the environmental performance of the aircraft.

Responsible aviation

ATR is constantly looking for ways to improve the products and services that it offers to clients. Improving efficiency facilitates better operations for our clients and goes hand-in-hand with reducing environmental impact. However, our commitment to the environment goes much deeper. We are dedicated to responsible aviation, ensuring that there is a sustainable future for the industry. In order to counterbalance the environmental impact of growing regional air traffic, the aviation industry needs to analyse and optimise every single aspect of its operations. ATR has always supported a global approach to reducing the aviation industry’s environmental footprint. A long-term holder of Europe’s ISO 14001 environmental standard and an active member of the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), we are committed to helping the industry reach its overall environmental targets of 1.5 per cent improved fuel efficiency per year through 2020, carbon neutral growth from 2020, and halved CO₂ emissions by 2050 (compared to 2005). The ATR 72-600 already has the lowest environmental footprint in its category – but there is always more to be done. We believe that our policy of continuous innovation will deliver solutions such as Standard 3 that are beneficial both to our operators but also environmentally responsible.