The Intelligent Situational Awareness and Forecasting Environment (The S.A.F.E. Concept): A Case Study

A knowledge-centered approach to aircraft flight safety enhancement is proposed. Using an example of modeling and simulation of a flight accident, a concept of the Intelligent Situational Awareness and Forecasting Environment (the S.A.F.E. concept) is introduced. The purpose of this type of onboard system is short-term prediction of a tree-network of possible safe and unsafe flightpaths under complex (multi-factor) flight situations. Two notional systems are discussed: the Situational Forecast Display and the Flight Safety Indicator. Potential applications include pilot-vehicle intelligent interface, automatic flight envelope protection, autonomous (robotic) flight, knowledge-centered pilot assistance and pilot training, and automatic resolution of conflicts in close ‘free flight’ navigation space, etc.