NEw Standby Lidar InstrumEnt

The aim of the NESLIE project is to develop a 3 axis LIDAR function for air data back-up channel for implementation on civil aircraft on the horizon 2010.

A typical air data system is composed of individual probes and pressure sensors. It delivers vital parameters for the safety of the aircraft’s flight such as air speed, angle of attack and altitude. But since primary and standby channels have similar failure modes, the use of laser based architecture with drastically different failure modes can increase aircraft’s safety by reducing the probability of common failures.

This technology will also allow to have a nonprotruding probe to measure Pt, AOA and SSA in comparison to traditional probes which have protruding parts subjected to external aggressions.

NESLIE will permit to go one step further in the domain of Lidar size, weight and cost reduction, thanks to the use of emerging integrated optics technology (integration on substrate, guided optic). Needed technological bricks (Laser, separator, commutation, pumps hybridisation, …) will thus be merged into a minimal number of integrated modules