Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is an Australian research university advancing innovation across aviation, technology and engineering. As part of its work supporting aviation modernization efforts, QUT leads the Australian Digital Airspace Characterisation (ADAC) project, a collaborative initiative with Boeing Defence Australia and FlyFreely funded through the Australian Government’s Emerging Aviation Technology Partnership (EATP) program.
The ADAC project is developing a first-of-its-kind digital toolkit designed to quantify collision risk across most of Australia’s airspace. To support this, QUT needed reliable aircraft positional data that could provide insight into aircraft movements across existing surveillance coverage areas and new remote areas.
Aireon’s global space-based automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) data provides ADAC with high-resolution aircraft surveillance information, complementing other aviation and non-aviation datasets used by the project. With access to aircraft movement data across areas where traditional surveillance may be limited, QUT is able to develop a more complete understanding of activity throughout Australian airspace.
By integrating Aireon data with advanced risk estimation methods, ADAC can move beyond traditional qualitative assessments and generate numerical collision risk values. These insights can help regulators and aviation stakeholders more precisely predict and mitigate airspace risks.
The project is also designed to support the safe integration of emerging aviation technologies as Australia’s airspace continues to evolve. ADAC’s evidence-based approach aligns with international regulatory frameworks, providing a foundation for more informed airspace management, regulatory decision-making and future modernization efforts.
