Lufthansa and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have successfully conducted an operating test for the TaxiBot used with a B747-400 to demonstrate its ability to tow an airplane from gate to runway and back under typical taxiing conditions. The test was conducted at the Frankfurt International Airport.
TaxiBot is a joint development by IAI’s Lahav Division and Airbus of an innovative environmentally-friendly pilot-controlled semi-robotic towing system. The Taxibot Dispatch Towing system, designed by IAI, allows airplanes to taxi to and from the airport gate to the runway without the need to operate their jet engines.
The test, conducted on a Lufthansa commercial B747-400 aircraft, followed a test in Toulouse on an Airbus A340-600 test aircraft, conducted by Airbus and IAI during the second quarter of 2010 that showed promising results. With the conclusion of the B747 test, the TaxiBot demonstrator showed that it can successfully perform dispatch towing missions with both Airbus and Boeing aircraft, which represent the bulk of commercial aircraft in current use.
The Frankfurt test is a further milestone in the TaxiBot program which was launched in mid-2008 with the contribution of a Lufthansa LEOS Krauss-Maffie TPS-1 which became IAI’s base vehicle for the TaxiBot concept demonstrator.
