MOREALIS - A Holistic Approach to Enhance Safety for Micro-Aircraft Operations

Kurzfassung

Introduced by various European Union member states in recent years, the very lightweight, single-seat microlight aircraft category (the German "Leichte Luftsportgeräte"-class), with an empty mass of up to 120 kg gained broad popular interest. This is probably caused due to the fact that this class envisions the basic ideas of recreational flight: simplicity through strict weight limitation and low administrative effort, thus low acquisition and operational costs. Furthermore, "LL" aircraft are not required to undergo annual inspections, whereas pilots of this aircraft category are not obliged to pass annual medical examinations, but remain self-responsible for these matters. Despite massive improvement in safety features for general aviation over the last decades, serious or even fatal accidents remain one of the major concerns and require constant improvement. Taking these conditions into account, the MOREALIS project aims towards increasing safety for "LL" aircraft configurations by means ranging from improved structural concepts of the airframe, aircraft and pilot health monitoring up to fault-tolerant flight control laws and finally a dedicated automatic emergency landing procedure. This paper therefore presents an overview of the employed methods and respective partner contributions.