French telecommunications company Com One has developed an external aircraft security system called AirView, which the company claims will improve security for aircraft on the ground.

Business development manager Guillaume Daudon spoke to EBAN at this year’s EBACE event in Geneva: “The first reason for the system is what we see every day on the television when we talk about terrorism. But the biggest argument is that the system is useful just to watch, to have an eye on the aeroplane and, for example, keep an eye on the wings of the plane to watch for vandalism.

“If someone hits your wing with their truck, you can record the video of what’s happening around your aircraft,” said Daudon. “Everything is recorded on a rack – installed inside the aircraft – which stores the video, date, time, its duration and the number of the video. perimeter of the system is really close, so if you are walking 10 metres around it, you won’t trigger the alarm.”

The system is activated when the sensors detect movement near the aircraft. One of the four cameras will then start recording and a video will be stored in the database. If the object is big enough – a truck or person, for example – then the AirView system sends an sms message to the owner, which can be viewed immediately on a GSM mobile telephone.

“We provide a GSM mobile telephone with the system. If you don’t have a GSM network and the alarm is triggered, you cannot be warned,” said Daudon. “However, the system records everything and when you are within about 100 metres from your aircraft you can download all of the videos wirelessly with the Bluetooth link. But now the GSM network is covering 140 countries around the world and even with a bad reception you should receive the sms and view the video.”

Com One developed AirView with Dassault, for installation on the Falcon 900 and 2000. The company is now working with Airbus and is in discussion with Bombardier to further develop the system. The cost of the AirView system is e135,000, with an additional cost of between e25,000 to e30,000 for installation, which takes about four days.