Flying a passenger plane by computer only, and a drone powered by the power of the sun

"Already today it is practically possible to fly a passenger plane with a computer only. The computer knows how to take off and land the plane better than the pilot and prevents accidents that are defined as 'human errors,'" says Shlomo Tzach, head of the Flight Sciences Administration at the Aerospace Industry, at the opening of the 47th Aeronautical Conference for Aerospace Sciences for 2007

"The research and development currently carried out in the Aerospace Industry is the solid foundation for the development of advanced technologies and new products that will allow the company to achieve impressive business growth," says Yitzhak Nissan, CEO of the Aerospace Industry (TAA), ahead of the opening of the 47th Aeronautical Conference for Aerospace Sciences 2007 which was held on Wednesday in Tel Aviv and will continue today (Thursday) at the Technion.

The conference, which includes lectures and discussions on science, technology and research in the fields of aeronautical and space engineering, will be held today and tomorrow (February 21-22) in Tel Aviv and Haifa. At the conference, held every year by the organizing committee of the conference, led by the Technion and representatives from various organizations related to the issue, many lecturers from the IDF, the Technion and the industries in Israel and abroad will appear.

Gadi Cohen, Deputy Director of the IAA and Director of the Civil Aircraft Division, said that: "At the aeronautical conference, IAA's achievements in the development of unmanned aircraft powered by alternative energy and new developments, local and international, in the field of civil aviation will be presented. There is a growing demand for the unique engineering knowledge of the IAA in the field of drones, training planes and civil planes".

Some of the topics presented at the conference:

• UAVs powered by solar energy - the TAA, in collaboration with the Technion, invests in and develops technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) powered by solar energy. These are drones, which is their only source of energy. UAVs of this type will be able to stay in the air for extended periods of time, by charging energy from the sun during the day and using it at night. Models of drones powered by solar energy will be presented at the exhibition.

• Passenger plane without a pilot (autonomous plane) - a program in which the IAA participates as part of a European consortium (within the framework of the European R&D program), which aims to improve flight safety through autonomous flight and reduce manpower costs in order to promote the idea of ​​flying A passenger plane without a pilot.
"It is already possible today, in a practical way, to fly a passenger plane with a computer only," says Shlomo Tzach, head of the Flight Sciences Administration at the Engineering Center of the Israel Aviation Authority. "The computer knows how to take off and land the plane better than the pilot and prevents accidents defined as 'human errors'. The main barrier to using this technology is already purely psychological. We are working on improving and perfecting the method in order to make it safer," adds Tsach, whose people will speak at a conference on this topic.

• Computer software for aerodynamic optimization - the TAA will present at the conference tools and software it has developed for aerodynamic optimization of aircraft. These are CFD (Computerized Fluid Dynamics) programs that help to plan the aerodynamics of aircraft in a better way. The software was used by the IAA when it designed the new G150 executive plane in collaboration with the American "Gulfstream" company. As a result, the aircraft meets high performance goals compared to the initial design. "The programs make use of the computing power of 400 processors working at the same time and mean that very complex calculations can be done today in 17 hours. Without this ability, the same calculations would take about 54 years (!)", says Shlomo Tsekh.

• Flight control of helicopters - the TAA has developed the ability to adjust flight control of helicopters. This is more difficult for flight control of fixed-wing aircraft, due to the many movements of the helicopter.

As part of the aeronautical conference, there will be lectures by TAA employees on distinct topics of aircraft development: development of wings (aerodynamics), development of structures (aero structures) for airplanes and drones made of composite materials (which are now used for the design and production of fighter jets and civilian airplanes), aeroelasticity, and airplane conversions . Aryeh Helzband, director of the Israel Aerospace Exploration Agency, will give a lecture on the space industry in Israel - history, present and future. Uri Sinai, the director of the Israel Defense Forces' MLM plant, which a few days ago carried out a successful launch of the "Hatz", will participate in a panel that will discuss the response to the threat of missiles and missiles against Israel.