Highlights Critical Importance Of New R&D To Aviation Safety, Security, Sustainability

Opening ICAO’s first ever Innovation Fair in Montréal Sunday, ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu highlighted the critical importance of new technologies to the continued safety, security, and sustainability of flight.

“Our sector has survived and thrived because of its ability to adapt to new technologies and to new expectations from global societies, and it must continue to do so today,” Dr. Aliu said, noting that the UN Climate Action Summit provided particular emphasis on environmental issues.

“Through this Innovation Fair and UN Climate Summit, together with our upcoming discussions at the 40th Assembly, we can realize together an even stronger foundation for ICAO Member States to build upon, and send a strong signal to the world that the international aviation community is leveraging its historic ability to cooperate and to innovate toward more ambitious long term emissions objectives for international aviation,” he said.

The ICAO Innovation Fair attracted some of the most innovative heavyweights in the traditional aviation industry together with many new entrants, some of whom are redefining how we conceive of flight and powered aerial operations. Prototypes of their cutting-edge products were on display for the attending business and regulatory leaders, including Ministers of Transport, to review.

“The new aircraft and flight capabilities being realized today hold the promise of being able to deliver completely new frameworks for how modern societies support and help their populations to survive, and to thrive, and so understandably ICAO’s Member States are very eager for us to engage with you,” Dr. Aliu declared to the audience of senior officials and entrepreneurs. “I’m therefore encouraged that we see on display here not only new hardware solutions, and new aircraft models and types, but also proposals for how the aviation software backbone will be improved through the introduction of new Artificial Intelligence and blockchain solutions, and even in some instances how regulators can innovate in order to interface with you more effectively and efficiently.”

(Images provided with ICAO news release)

FMI: www.icao.int