The Department of Air Transport is currently focused on seven main research areas, which are detailed below. These areas collectively cover the complete spectrum of air transport operations in all its operational aspects. The institute profiles itself in applied research, aiming to develop and deliver results directly to the end user in practice. By finalizing these results in aviation organizations, common production solutions are created, which are tailored to each organization individually and surpass commonly available products of this kind on the market.
Research in the field of airports is currently focused on two main directions. The first direction is the optimisation and enhancement of the use of available airport resources, which include in particular airport infrastructure, airport ground equipment and human resources. This area also includes projects leading to a higher level of automation in airport operations. The other main focus is the digital transformation and integration of airports into the pan-European ATM network under the Digital European Sky concept and the SESAR programme. All of this can be seen as a response to the ever-increasing demand for air transport, as airspace and airport capacity is currently limited. The airports research team is involved in these challenges together with partners across Czech aviation and in cooperation with EUROCONTROL.
Ing. Slobodan STOJIĆ, Ph.D.
Aviation maintenance is one of the support processes in air transport. Although it is not always visible, the safety of air traffic depends on it to a large extent, as does its efficiency or overall cost-effectiveness and therefore the availability of air transport to the company. Aviation maintenance processes are a complex system that involves the organisation of teams, the planning of available space, tools and materials, and other logistical and support tasks. The number and variety of tasks on each aircraft, including a number of uncertainties that may arise during revisions, make it difficult for maintenance organisations to do their job. In this area, the Department of Air Transport has been developing tools aimed at supporting the planning and execution of aviation maintenance, targeting the overall management and optimization of their processes. We are involved in the identification of dependencies in maintenance and the prediction of both planned and unplanned tasks, including the development of software tools tailored to specific organizations and specific problems.
Ing. Natalia GUSKOVA
Aviation safety is one of the current challenges not only in air transport operations, but also in the field of science and research. For decades, aviation has struggled to reduce the number of accidents and thus achieve greater interest in this mode of transport. Despite the undeniable success in this area, modern times have posed completely new challenges to air traffic that are unprecedented in history. Globalisation and the integration of air traffic, both socially and technically, have created a highly complex system in which deficiencies and problematic phenomena spread and combine much more easily than in history. Dealing with such problems requires the active cooperation of all air traffic participants as well as technical tools that help to identify, record and share knowledge about the occurrence and behaviour of problems that can cause air accidents. The Aviation Safety Research Team of the Department of Air Transport is a department that is dedicated to the development of such tools for all types of aviation organisations.
doc. Ing. Andrej LALIŠ, Ph.D.
The European Air Traffic Management (ATM) system has been undergoing dynamic changes over the last decade, initiated and accelerated by the legislative framework known as the Single European Sky (SES). Meeting the current performance targets increases the innovative pressure not only on individual air navigation service providers but also on all the entities involved, not to mention the inevitable liberalisation trends in this area. The technological backbone of the SES initiative is the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) project, which highlights the scope and complexity of the research activities emphasised in the European region, both in the field of research and development of new ATM technologies and procedures and in their deployment in practice. The CNS/ATM research team is involved in these challenges and contributes at national and international level to the SESAR sub-objectives through its research activities. Some of our research activities are supported by the Czech Technology Agency. These are projects aimed at researching the impact of GNSS signal interference in aviation, using Point in Space procedures and Low Level Routes in the Czech Republic, or supporting small aviation through research on remote information provision at small airports.
Ing. Terézia PILMANNOVÁ, MBA
Human factors research specialises in the assessment and objectification of human psychophysiological fitness, with a primary focus on air transport. Research activities include the assessment and classification of the psychophysiological state of aviation specialists such as pilots, air traffic controllers or aviation maintenance technicians. However, the research team's portfolio of activities also includes issues of hypoxia, vestibular illusions, perception, competency-based and evidence-based training. These activities are carried out in collaboration with partner institutions and in most cases also supported by projects and grants.
Ing. Lenka HANÁKOVÁ, Ph.D.
The operation and economics of air transport combines both activities that are purely operational and areas where very intensive primary research is carried out. As air traffic is affected by a wide range of influences, factors and activities, research in this area is also diverse. Similarly, research within the air transport operations and economics research team therefore varies widely from primary to applied. The recipients of research may be individual air transport operators, aviation service providers but in the case of primary research there may be overlap outside the transport sector. The research team is committed to contributing to progress and research and prides itself on its ability to address with high quality a very diverse range of research problems relating to aviation.
doc. Ing. Jakub HOSPODKA, Ph.D.
Unmanned systems are currently perceived as a major breakthrough in aviation that needs to be addressed both at the operational and research levels. Due to the fact that this is an area almost as old as aviation itself, it is only with the emergence of digitisation and miniaturisation that it has become increasingly more and more important. This means more and more new challenges, where the current era can be described as the main beginning of unmanned aviation. Only this decade will actually show what unmanned aircraft operations on our planet will look like. Unmanned systems and their operation are a fundamental step away from the previously existing and complied with air traffic organisation with all rules, regulations and procedures focused on the core element of the system, the human, which can be largely replaced by autonomous operation today. However, unmanned systems are entering the airspace as a new part of aviation and within it, cooperation is needed between all the participants involved, from research, to supervisory authorities, to all types of operators and contributors. The Unmanned Systems Research Team is addressing the full scope of this issue so that the development of unmanned aviation can be as rapid as possible.
doc. Ing. Jakub KRAUS, Ph.D.