EasyJet to test ash detector on aircraft

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"EasyJet said yesterday it would become the world's first airline to test technology that enables aircraft to detect and avoid volcanic ash, in a bid to mitigate future travel disruption.

"The Luton-based company is organising a trial of an infrared system called Avoid (Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector) that has been developed over the past 20 years by Fred Prata, senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research.

"There was no commercial interest in the system until ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano caused extensive disruption of European airspace in April and May, at an estimated cost to airlines of more than $1.7bn (£1.2bn).

"EasyJet then agreed with Mr Prata to spend £1m testing the technology. It will be assessed on an A340 test aircraft owned by Airbus and then, if the results are favourable, fitted to a dozen EasyJet planes for a trial.

"This pioneering technology is the silver bullet that will make large-scale ash disruption history," said Andy Harrison, EasyJet chief executive. "The ash detector will enable our aircraft to see and avoid the ash cloud, just like airborne weather radar and weather maps make thunderstorms visible."


the full story is at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0f6140d2-703a-11df-8698-00144feabdc0.html

Lurching

I bet people were laughing at poor Fred down the pub for the last 20 years when he was talking about his volcanic ash detector. What use was that ever going to be?!

Id say Freds laughing now!

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

andy_g

I locked the other threads about this as its mentioned in the news thread but ill leave this open this time.

highlydebased

Read this on pprune and didnt know what to think of it. They just have to find some ash now to test it out...