< Previous• Establishing opportunities, mechanisms and tools for facilitating interactions among civil aviation legal advisers in different States and regions; and • Sharing regulatory best practices. Mr. Lucien Wong, Attorney-General of Singapore, noted: “Aviation is inherently cross-border in nature. The safety and efficiency of air traffic operations inevitably requires cooperation across borders, between States, air navigation service providers, civil aviation authorities and regulators. It is therefore all the more important that legal advisers exchange views and learn from each other so as to preserve and promote the rules-based international aviation regime that the parties to the Chicago Convention envisaged 75 years ago.” Forum participants were invited to participate in the forthcoming Legal Commission of the 40th Session of the ICAO Assembly in September 2019 and the ICAO Treaty Event to be held on its sidelines. “Aviation is inherently cross-border in nature.” - Mr. Lucien Wong, Attorney-General of Singapore Mrs. Siew Huay Tan from Singapore is the first woman to serve as ICAO Legal Committee Chairperson. “ Since ICAO came into being, 24 international air law instruments have been adopted in various fields such as aviation security, air carrier liability and aircraft finance.” 58 | ICAO JOURNAL | ISSUE 2 | 2019 CIVIL AVIATION LEGAL ADVISERS FORUM REVIEWIntroducing New Technologies In The Aviation Frame — Italian Initiatives What are the challenges that the Italian air transport industry needs to face in the future? An important role will be played by the new technologies and their significant impact on the national industry. I refer, in particular, to the use of drones in the implementation of the future urban delivery concepts and to the suborbital commercial transport. What activities can be identified to push the development of drone services in the urban environment? It will be profitable to direct the R&D activities on the possibility of using, in terms of payload, medium / high capacity drones in the development of integrated models for the transport and delivery of goods in urban areas, for the benefit of general public. Which are the necessary steps to develop new services in the field of suborbital commercial transport? In this regard, I would like to emphasize the need of three fundamental enablers. The definition of a regulatory framework: ENAC, with the essential support of an interinstitutional and interdisciplinary working group, has developed the regulation draft scheme for the certification of spaceports and the initial guidelines for the flight operations rules. The selection of the spaceport: the activities needed to identify the optimal site have been completed and the Minister of Infrastructures and Transports has designated the “Taranto Grottaglie” airport as the national spaceport; it is a strategic asset that will ensure an autonomous access to the space and, as a consequence, the implementation of new governmental policies on space economy. Finally, the deployment of mission control capabilities (trajectories, debris, coordination with commercial transport): a dedicated project is underway to be submitted to Minister for adoption. The multiple areas of application, such as the research in the absence of gravity or the positioning of satellites in orbit, have a remarkable added value. An effective development of these activities will also allow the country to play an international role, providing services also to other Countries. In fact, also due to the growing activities in transferring infrastructures from the earth’s surface to space, it is obvious that space businesses is now further re-evaluated by the industry. Satellite constellations will represent a fundamental infrastructure for the supply of services with high added value as well as for the safety of people. ALESSIO QUARANTA Director General of the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile, ENAC)CEO FORUM SINGAPORE CEO FORUM: TECHNOLOGY, DRONES, TOWERS The invitation-only Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) World Civil Aviation Chief Executive’s Forum, the seventh such event, explored the theme “Advancing Aviation: Building Our Future Together.” The high-level participants at the CAAS CEO Forum were treated to some examples of the latest technology for airports and training – a sneak preview of the new Jewel Changi Airport and the launch of a new Aerodrome Simulator – then got down to business discussing additional ways to leverage technology for the future. Among the speakers were Dr. Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Health, Singapore; Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, President of the ICAO Council; Mr. Stephen Creamer, Director, Air Navigation Bureau, ICAO; Mr. Alexandre de Juniac, Director General & CEO, International Air Transport Association; Mr. Daniel K. Elwell, Acting Administrator, US Federal Aviation Administration; Mr. Patrick Ky, Executive Director, European Aviation Safety Agency; Ms. Poppy Khoza, Director, South African Civil Aviation Authority; and Mr. Yin Shijun, Chief Engineer, Civil Aviation Administration of China. In his keynote address, Dr. Aliu sought to focus “our sector’s attention on the issues and developments surrounding the revolutionary innovations now emerging globally in terms of new ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu (right) with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong. The two leaders discussed a wide range of issues surrounding Asia and Pacific Region air transport growth. 60 | ICAO JOURNAL | ISSUE 2 | 2019 SINGAPORE CEO FORUM: TECHNOLOGY, DRONES, TOWERSaircraft and operations. This includes the millions of smaller drones now being operated toward a variety of new and unexpected purposes around the world today, as well as many other aircraft types which will fly higher, lower, faster, and even much slower than those we manage today.” The ICAO President clarified that, as aviation’s standard setter, it is ICAO’s role to anticipate, enable, and guide this evolution. “We must help to foster innovation in all its forms, but at the same time safeguard the basic interoperability that has made air transport such an incredible force for peace, prosperity, and economic growth in the world,” he underscored. “And collectively, as aviation leaders, we also have a very critical responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of skilled personnel to manage this increasingly complex technological foundation for 21st century aviation.” Noting that, increasingly, digital systems also carry with them higher cybersecurity risks, the ICAO President said, “To assure a strong cyber posture for air transport, our goal isn’t to prescribe what firewall someone should use, but rather to establish a comprehensive sectoral architecture which will provide a secure core foundation for sustainable air transport digital interoperability. And key to this objective is the establishment of trusted identities between the senders and receivers of digital information.” He emphasized as well that innovation should not be a priority only for the developed world, and that developing countries stand to benefit significantly as innovations help them to leapfrog many legacy systems and approaches. The technical programme for the forum also featured the Unmanned Systems Asia Conference (UMSA), designed to tap evolving opportunities in Asia Pacific, and SMART Digital Tower at T2, a prototype CAAS is testing to determine its suitability and robustness for use in a busy airport such as Changi. Dr. Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Health, Singapore, and Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, ICAO President, participated in the launch of a new Aerodrome Simulator for training tower and controller positions, produced by UFA for the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). The Aerodrome Simulator provides a 360° panoramic view with high-definition imagery of the airfield for training in single- or dual- runway operations. SINGAPORE CEO FORUM: TECHNOLOGY, DRONES, TOWERS www.ICAO.int | 61CHINA FORUM CHINA FORUM FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY, SYSTEMS, STRUCTURE The China Civil Aviation Development Forum, the largest and highest- level exchange platform for China’s civil aviation industry, was held for the 10th time in May, and focused discussion on the integration of technology, optimization of systems and processes, and optimization of organizational structure and industry governance. The Forum is designed to serve as a high-level communication platform for global aviation leaders, hosted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), and provides insights into priorities for Chinese government investment and development in civil aviation. Many of the speakers were high-level government officials in charge of aviation development. The 81 speaker presentations and panels addressed four main topics: • New Scientific, Technological and Industrial Revolution and the Future of Civil Aviation • Exploration and Practice of Global Intelligent Aviation Development • Challenges for Intelligent Civil Aviation Development • In-depth Convergence from Application of Digital Technologies to Intelligent Aviation. Speakers included Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, ICAO Council President; Mr. Feng Zhenglin, Administrator of CAAC; Mr. Patrick Ky, Executive Director of the European Aviation Safety Agency; and Mr. Carl Burleson, Acting Deputy Administrator of the US Federal Aviation Administration. Nearly 400 representatives participated from 13 countries and regions and five international and regional organizations, including a number of senior officials from foreign governments, heads of relevant departments of the State Council, senior domestic and foreign business leaders, executives of domestic airlines, airports, service support entities and aviation manufacturers, as well as leaders of civil aviation regulatory authorities. Dr. Aliu remarked, “Technological innovations, if addressed on a complementary basis, can greatly accelerate the rate at which all countries and peoples can benefit even more from the significant and sustainable socio-economic impacts of air transport,” noting that “related regulatory reforms must be accomplished in a manner which ensures that aviation retains the confidence of the travelling public as the safest and an efficient and reliable mode of transport.” ICAO’s Council President also highlighted how the digitization of aviation now extends to virtually every area of airline and airport operation today, and that these trends pose serious concerns not only in terms of process evolution, but also cybersecurity threats. He strongly underscored the need for air transport personnel to be trained “with the enhanced competencies that will be required to operate and manage all of the new 21st-century aviation systems and capabilities, professionally and efficiently.” Dr. Aliu drew attention to how “innovative technologies are also critical to our efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of our industry to the benefit of future generations. This underscores the importance of China’s recent efforts to promote the greening of aviation.” 62 | ICAO JOURNAL | ISSUE 2 | 2019 CHINA FORUM FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY, SYSTEMS, STRUCTUREICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu highlighted to Forum participants that technological innovations, if addressed on a complementary basis, can greatly accelerate the rate at which all countries and peoples can benefit even more from the significant and sustainable socio-economic impacts of air transport. Mr. Feng Zhenglin stated in his keynote speech that a new round of scientific, technological and industrial revolution, is unfolding, with information technology being the lead and “intelligence” the highlight, leaving in-depth impacts on the way of production, living and even thinking of people and reshaping the civil aviation industry from each aspect of its structure, model and layout. “We should solve development difficulties with intelligence to effectively address a range of problems and challenges such as increasing safety risks and higher requirement for customer service experience, so as to bring aviation safety to a new qualitative level and make passengers fully enjoy the sense of gain and happiness brought by civil aviation development,” Mr. Feng said. Mr. Patrick Ky addressed the audience on Europe’s practice with a safe and efficient air transportation management system. Underlining EASA’s commitment to cooperation and technical exchanges with China, he signed a joint Letter of Intent together with CAAC’s Deputy Administrator, Mr. Li Jian, endorsing the EU-China Aviation Partnership Project. Mr. Carl Burleson, citing the coming wave of drones and even flying cars, stated, “The innovations are not going to slow down. That is a challenge for the FAA and other civil aviation regulators around the world. The FAA is committed to finding a way forward that protects the public but allows innovation and opportunity to move forward, and we’ll work hand-in-hand with our international partners, including CAAC, to make sure we address together these constantly changing challenges and to learn from one another.” During his stay in Beijing, Dr. Aliu met with a number of high-level officials, CAAC Administrator Mr. Feng, as well as the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Mr. Le Yucheng, to address these and other points of relevance to China’s civil aviation sector. He also visited Beijing’s new Daxing International Airport. prototype CAAS is testing to determine its suitability and robustness for use in a busy airport such as Changi. CHINA FORUM FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY, SYSTEMS, STRUCTURE www.ICAO.int | 63Astronaut for a Day? Fifty years after men landed on the moon and returned to earth, and eight years after the retirement of the US Space Shuttle programme in 2011, the push for manned spaceflight is on again. But now, commercial space tourism enterprises are taking the lead in developing new technology and operational concepts. Virgin Galactic, led by the UK’s Sir Richard Branson, this summer opened its “Gateway to Space” lounge at the Spaceport America facility in New Mexico. The lounge will allow future space travellers to “share breakfast with spaceship pilots, grab coffee with rocket engineers and pass the time of day with the team from mission control.” Thus far, about 600 wealthy individuals have reserved 2.5-hour trips, at US$250,000 per ticket. Virgin Galactic’s current plan is to send its first customers to space early next year, and they are now building a second two-crew, six- passenger spaceship to fly beyond the 100 km altitude. Another billionaire, South African-born Elon Musk, through his SpaceX company, has developed a reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft, launched via the Falcon 9 rocket, to send humans into space COMMERCIAL SPACE and to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS). He’s also developing a more powerful Falcon Heavy launcher and Starship to transport cargo and human passengers around the world and eventually to colonies to be built on the moon and Mars. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin venture is hoping to fly humans by the end of this year on its New Shepard suborbital spaceship (named for US 64 | ICAO JOURNAL | ISSUE 2 | 2019 ASTRONAUT FOR A DAY?astronaut Alan Shepard). Over the past four years, Blue Origin has conducted 11 uncrewed New Shepard test flights. They are also gearing up to build the orbital-class New Glenn rocket (named for former astronaut and US Senator John Glenn), as well as a moon-orbiting project with NASA known as Blue Moon. Those three have captured most of the headlines about space travel. But there are several other companies angling for the emergent space tourism business. Between 2001 and 2009, seven people paid to spend between 7-16 days aboard the ISS through Space Adventures; after a hiatus, they are again partnering with the Russia Space Agency, Roscosmos, to fly two tourists into space for a short- term flight in 2021, using Soyuz rockets. Two companies are proposing space tourism using balloons – Zero2Infinity and World View Enterprises. A capsule capable of carrying four passengers and two crew would be lifted by a helium balloon up to roughly 118,000 feet, where you can see the edge of the earth before descending back to earth by parachute. Total flight: approximately 4-5 hours. Cost: $75,000. And there’s the “space hotel” category. Bigelow Aerospace attached an “expandable activity module” to the ISS. And Axiom plans to build a private space station in which people can spend an eight-day “holiday” – for a mere $55 million per person (designer cabins, gourmet food, and a great view); it also requires 15 weeks of training. Orion Span has a similar space station concept, “Aurora,” which they ambitiously hope to launch by 2022; a 12-day stay is a bargain at UK£9.5 million after three months of training. If all you want to do is experience the weightlessness of space, there’s the “G-Force One” modified Boeing 727 from Zero-G, which flies parabolic arcs, each time causing you to float in the air for 20-30 seconds. Only $5,400 for the day. SKIES GETTING CROWDED “Up to now, rockets were just kind of a nuisance, but it would only happen once or twice a year. Now we’re looking at having to be ready for regular operations, probably up to a frequency of once per day, maybe 10 years from now,” predicted Mr. Yuri Fattah, Programme Manager of Multidisciplinary Priorities in the ICAO Air Navigation Bureau. “Aviation regulators get a little worried because we already have a thousand objects to keep our eye on, and it’s very difficult when someone wants to go shoot up in the sky and come back down,” he added. “What we have started to do in the aviation community is try to better understand these.” Mr. Fattah told ICAO Journal, “We will not be looking at what happens in outer space itself. But because aerospace is a shared resource, we’ll be focussing the resources we have available on the ‘intersection’ – if a rocket is flying through the airspace that is normally used by commercial aviation traffic or general traffic, because there are some consequences for civilian traffic. When they launch, almost all the traffic that tracks below the trajectory of the rocket has to be routed around.” For example, to accommodate the initial launch of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy in 2018, the US Federal Aviation Administration had to shut down airspace stretching from the Florida coast to more than a thousand miles east over the Atlantic Ocean during a three-hour window (for a 90-second flight), causing delays and forcing planes to burn additional fuel. ASTRONAUT FOR A DAY? www.ICAO.int | 65Currently, about 1,400 flights a year are affected by spacecraft, requiring airlines to fly an additional 70,000 miles. Airlines are concerned that the growing number of commercial rocket launches will significantly affect the already congested global airspace, which handles more than 15 million airline flights annually. ICAO’s Fattah said, “We need to prepare for a future where there are more frequent rocket launches. We also know that rocket launches will not always happen over the ocean or over low- traffic areas. So we have to figure out how we properly manage the risks to make sure that there is no safety issue or introducing undue inefficiencies.” “For the airspace management issue, we have mechanisms in place for experts to get together all the people who want to use the airspace, whether it be civilian, military, rocket launchers, and find a fair balance, and always a safe approach. Through collaborative decision-making, discuss who needs what and how it’s going to affect the others. And then the airspace manager, sometimes the regulator, will sit on top of that,” he explained. “There are quite a few initiatives around the world of having joint air and space clocks.” Mr. Fattah said in addition to the “intersection” of commercial air traffic and rockets in the airspace, there are ground-based issues which need to be addressed as well, such as having rocket fuel around the airport. Also, when reusable spacecraft return to earth, “they’ve normally burnt out; they have no fuel. They’re actually a glider and don’t have the option of aborting their approach and coming around. What happens if it has no energy at the end of the runway, then somebody has to go out and tow it back in. Or does it have any hazardous materials on board? So it’s a little more complicated to synchronize all this, but it can be done.” “In order for the figuring-out process to begin, somebody already has to have done most of the hard work. We’re watching very closely the developments in the US,” said Mr. Fattah. Space Policy Directive 2 calls for a variety of regulatory reforms, including proposed revisions to commercial launch and reentry regulations intended to make it easier for companies to carry out such operations, and a move toward consolidating more space regulatory work within the US Commerce Department. A new European Union Space Programme Regulation proposal is an umbrella regulation with common rules for the current and incoming space flagship programmes. “to foster a European ‘New Space’ of innovative start-ups and increase the security of Europeans.” “What we tell our sisters and brothers in the space community is we’ve had headaches and we’ve learnt lessons and we look forward to showing you how you might want to avoid the same. So we have that open conversation,” Mr. Fattah concluded. “Our highest value is the harmonization of regulations, so operators are not asked to follow one set of rules in one place and another set of rules in another place.” – Mr. Yuri Fattah, ICAO Air Navigation Bureau 66 | ICAO JOURNAL | ISSUE 2 | 2019 ASTRONAUT FOR A DAY?ASECNA, a vivid example of a pan-African and Malagasy co-operation ASECNA’s main mission: air navigation safety ASECNA’s main mission is to provide air navigation services in the airspace under its responsability. It is composed of five (5) Flight Information Regions (FIRs) defined by ICAO: Antananarivo, Brazzaville, Dakar Oceanic & Terrestrial, Niamey and Ndjamena: T he Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA), is a public organisation endowed with an international status, settled by 18 Member States including 17 ACP States from West & Central Africa, the Indian Ocean and France. ASECNA was founded in Saint Louis, Senegal, on 12th December 1959 and is governed by the Dakar Convention. The Agency is specially characterised by a strong willingness of Member States to share their resources in order to fulfil any activities related to the air navigation safety. ASECNA is vested with the responsibility of cooperative management of a stanned airspace of 16.1 millions square km (1, 5 time the size of Europe), and is the major Air Navigation Services Provider in the Africa and Indian Ocean Region (AFI). As a regional and an autonomous organisation dedicated to transnational management of airspaces, ASECNA is a recognised model widely promoted by the international aviation community, with a single sky for many decades. The Edward WARNER Prize of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), has been awarded to ASECNA in 1972 in full recognition of all achievements in providing services. ASECNA area of responsibility More information available on: www.asecna.aero ASECNA’s missions include the provision of services related to air traffic management (ATM), communication/navigation/ surveillance (CNS), aeronautical information management (AIM), meteorological assistance to air navigation (MET) and aerodrome and ground aids (AGA)(e.g. fire fighting and rescue). These services cover en-route navigation, approach and landing phases. ASECNA operates an ATR-42 aircraft for inflight inspections to control and monitor navigation aids, communications and radar facilities for the benefit of the aviation community far beyond its own borders (Africa and the Caribbean). The Agency also rules three training centres, namely the African School of Meteorology and Civil Aviation (EAMAC), the Regional Training Center for Fire Fighters (ERSI) and the Regional Training Center of Air Navigation and Management (ERNAM). EAMAC focuses on the training of air traffic controllers, engineers and technicians. ERSI, a bilingual school, is responsible for the training of firemen and of their management. ERNAM is dedicated to continuous training in various areas according to the Agency needs. It also manages the ICAO Regional Aviation Security Centre (AVSEC). Benin Bissau Guinea Burkina Faso Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Equatorial Guinea France Gabon Ivory Cost Madagascar Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Togo ASECNA Member StatesNext >