"Just three months after the catastrophic Air India crash, engineers have been inspired to come up with a potential solution. And although it may look peculiar, it might just save thousands of lives per year. The concept, dubbed Project Rebirth, is an adapted airplane system that uses massive airbags akin to the ones found in cars. Sensors and AI software can detect when a crash is going to happen, triggering fast deployment of airbags at the nose, belly, and tail. The bags collectively form a huge protective cocoon, ensuring that any unplanned descent to the ground is not a violent or explosive one, however fast the plane is going. So although it might be a bumpy landing, a catastrophic impact is avoided and passengers and crew would be ultimately safe."
"Project Rebirth is one of the finalists for the prestigious James Dyson Award, which recognizes inventions that can change the world. Project Rebirth is the creation of engineers Eshel Wasim and Dharsan Srinivasan at the Dubai campus of Birla Institute of Technology And Science, Pilani. On the James Dyson Award website, they call it the first 'AI-powered crash survival system', inspired by a 'moment of heartbreak' earlier this year."
"'After the June 2025 Ahmedabad crash, my mother couldn't sleep,' said one of the engineers. 'She kept thinking about the fear the passengers and pilots must have felt, knowing there was no way out. 'That helplessness haunted us. Why isn't there a system for survival after failure? 'I shared this with a friend. That emotional storm became hours of research and design.'"
Project Rebirth is an adapted aircraft system that deploys large airbags at the nose, belly, and tail to cushion impacts. Sensors and AI software detect imminent crashes and trigger rapid inflation to form a protective cocoon around the fuselage. The system aims to transform otherwise violent or explosive descents into survivable, if bumpy, landings, reducing fatalities and injuries. The concept was developed by Eshel Wasim and Dharsan Srinivasan at the Dubai campus of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and is a finalist for the James Dyson Award. The design was inspired by the June 12, 2025 Ahmedabad crash that killed 260 people and ongoing investigation into why fuel switches were cut.
Read at Mail Online
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