Airport Maintenance

The group ADP is the French airport authority that develops and operates airport platforms including Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly, and Paris-Le Bourget. Paris-Le Bourget remains today the leading business airport in Europe.

The Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) is a 4-light unit block located beside landing runways, that provides visual guidance information to pilots for acquiring and maintaining a safe and accurate glide slope on the final approach. 

To maintain operational conditions and precision of the system, projected maintenance is carried on using for instance flying machines or elevating work platforms. Blocking off the access to the runway, PAPIs checking is made by simulating sinusoidal approaches to verify threshold angles and ensure compliance with regulations. On the downside, the airport necessarily shuts down the runway, consuming up-time, imposing complicated logistics, and taking risks by deploying operators in the air and on the runways.

For achieving this aeronautical maintenance task, Groupe ADP deployed the Elistair tethered drone solution: the Safe-T station.