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Flight Object Sharing Capability Using Blockchain
Duncan Thomson
1
, Steven R. Bodie
2
, David E. Bryson
3
, Timothy S. Luc
4
, and Joel G. Korb
5
The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA, 22102, USA
Abstract
This paper describes a concept and a prototype for sharing flight information using blockchain technology.
Providing all stakeholders access to complete, consistent, and up-to-date information about each flight
facilitates efficient aviation operations. Existing flight information exchange methods are limited; the concept
of a “flight object” that provides a complete solution for all stakeholders has yet to be realized. A complete
solution requires either a centrally administered data store, which is unsuitable for an international context,
or a distributed ledger. Distributed ledgers are at the heart of blockchain technology, which makes this
technology a good match for implementing the flight object. The authors have proven it is possible to provide
a complete flight object solution using blockchain technology by demonstrating a prototype based on
Tendermint: an open-source blockchain implementation. The demonstrated solution offers additional
benefits like strong integrity guarantees and role-based update permissions enforcement. Prototype
performance indicates a production implementation is likely to provide sufficient speed and capacity to
support global aviation operations for flight planning negotiation, as well as possible future concepts such as
trajectory-based operations and international flow management. The paper’s conclusion discusses steps
necessary for the flight object sharing capability to be adopted as the basis for a real-world international
aviation solution
I. Introduction
The idea of a flight object providing
stakeholders complete, consistent, and up-to-date
information about every flight has been discussed for
many years. In 2000, a MITRE paper [1] defined the
flight object as “…a collection of common
information elements describing an individual flight
and available electronically for use by both the
National Airspace System (NAS) users and the Air
Traffic Management (ATM) service providers.” And,
a 2003 EUROCONTROL paper [2] described the
1
Senior Principal Engineer, T8C1 Aviation Communications
2
Software Systems Engineering Lead, T8C1 Aviation Communications
3
Blockchain Technology Lead, T851 Agile Engineering & Innovation
4
Senior Electrical Engineer, T8C1 Aviation Communications
5
Senior Software Systems Engineer, T831 Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence
concept as follows: “For each flight which is planned,
is currently active, or has taken place, there will be a
‘flight object’ which contains the latest confirmed
information about the flight…”. Providing an
interoperable flight object to stakeholders such as
ATM service providers (ASPs), aircraft operators, air
defense units, and airport authorities was described in
Ref. [2] as a means to reduce “unnecessary workload,
inefficient use of resources, and unnecessary delays.”
The flight object remains an important part of the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
