Identification of Major Safety Issues for a Futuristic Personal Plane Concept

The paper describes activities related to the safety assessment of a futuristic personal plane concept, done by researchers at the Institute of Aerospace Engineering (IAE), Brno University of Technology, as a part of the FP7 PPlane research project. Activities under the PPlane project were carried out in joint cooperation with an international research team led by ONERA (France). The aim of the FP7 EU project PPlane (Personal Plane) is to identify new potential concepts and technologies for future air transport, namely to create a future Personal Air Transport System (PATS). The personal air vehicle is understood to be analogous to a private car in terms of accessibility and ease of operation. Such a novel transportation system could help to reduce congestion on roads and enable more efficient transportation of passengers to their destinations. The introduction of PATS is a long-term goal which requires considerable progress beyond the current state-of-the-art technology as well as in related areas. The major enabling technology is believed to be a high level of automation in new air vehicles which would require either no or minor piloting skills of passengers.