webqem blog

“Flying Around” Rich Internet Application wins the Macromedia MAX 2005 Award for Government Experience.

Airservices Australia is a government-owned corporation that provides air traffic control management and related airside services to the aviation industry.

They recently won a Macromedia Max Award in the US and we think the application is a great demonstration of how Flash can be used to provide a superior user experience.

The organization delivers services for air traffic control, air traffic management, aviation rescue and fire fighting, and engineering to the general aviation industry in Australia. Airservices Australia manages over 11% of the world’s airspace, and handles air traffic operations for more than three million domestic and international flights a year. The corporation also provides air traffic and navigational services and associated aeronautical information required by both domestic and international aviation industries.

Challenge

As the aviation industry in Australia grows, there is a need to communicate multiple types of visual information in a format and manner that supports the widest possible usage. Too often, General Aviation pilots were straying into controlled airspace, which greatly increases the chance of a serious incident occurring. Richard Turner-Jones, visual application developer for Airservices Australia, said, “We found that many pilots, both new and experienced, were flying into controlled airspace due to unfamiliarity with the area or because they were unaware of changes to existing airspace.” Airservices Australia needed to increase pilots’ awareness of and planning for flight in and around controlled airspace. It wanted an interactive and visual website that provided information on how to operate flights in a safe and effective manner, thus reducing the likelihood of a violation of controlled airspace. To achieve this, Airservices Australia required a solution that was easy to maintain and modify, would work across multiple platforms and be able to cope with different internet connection speeds and varying user skill levels.

Solution

Using Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia Fireworks, and Macromedia FreeHand, Airservices Australia created its Flying Around website. Flying Around has been designed to give pilots ‘just-in-time’ information about a specific area and the ways to a operate flight in a safe, effective manner – reducing the likelihood of being involved in a violation of controlled airspace. The site provides interactive charts, aerial photos showing new geography of the landscape, specific information the airspace around major Australian cities, and controller tips about hazards in areas surrounding this controlled airspace. “We developed Flying Around to assist with pilot education and familiarity with operations around controlled airspace. By incorporating an ‘Interactive Viewer’ on the website, pilots can now familiarize themselves with their flight path using charts and aerial photos before taking off. This helps decrease the risk of a serious incident occurring,” said Turner-Jones. Because controlled airspaces and geography are continuously changing, Airservices Australia must update the maps and information on the site every six months. This meant the solution had to be easy to modify. Turner-Jones explains, “Airservices chose Macromedia products because they met our overall requirements and allow us to continually develop the website with ease. In creating Flying Around, we also found that through the use of automation and scripting inside Macromedia Fireworks and Macromedia Flash we were able to make repetitive tasks easier and greatly reduce workload,” explained Turner-Jones.

Benefits

• Reduction in the number of violations of controlled airspace occurrences, which has been reduced by around 25 per cent
• Easy to maintain and update: Currently required twice a year in line with AIRAC update cycles. Scripting inside Macromedia Fireworks and Macromedia Flash automated many repetitive tasks reducing the workload and making modifications easier
• Extendable and user friendly: New features such as video or animation can be added if required. Developers can go from start to finish creating and maintaining basic websites to advanced applications that support best practices and the latest technologies
• Reusability: The base application could be retooled to display any information based on spatial relations (i.e. using maps or diagrams) interactive and visual tool: Macromedia’s product set allows Airservices Australia to provide an interactive website that delivers realistic experiences for rich content, applications and communications across browsers, operating systems and devices.

Project Details

“The site has been a fantastic success. Since its launch almost 12 months ago, we’ve seen the number of violations of controlled airspace reduce by around 25 per cent,” said Turner-Jones. “The number of visitors to the site has increased by approximately 300 each month since it went live, with a 400 per cent growth in the number of hits in the last 11 months.”

“We have also received very positive feedback from the aviation community in general. So much so that not only are our General Aviation pilots using Flying Around, but also flying schools are encouraging students to use the site to increase their knowledge and familiarity of controlled airspaces,” concluded Turner-Jones.