Time is money in any business, but especially in the aviation industry. At an airline, the dollars can add up quickly when a $100-million airplane unexpectedly sits idle, even for a short period of time.
To help airlines reduce flight delays, cancellations, air turn-backs and diversions, The Boeing Company is introducing a new service, Airplane Health Management, or AHM. AHM monitors the health of an airplane in flight and relays that information in real time from the air to the ground. When the airplane arrives at the gate, maintenance crews are ready to make any needed repairs quickly.
"With Airplane Health Management, airlines will be able to identify problems long before an airplane lands," said Lou Mancini, vice president of Maintenance Services in Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. "Airline personnel will have time to review maintenance procedures, assemble necessary parts and be waiting for the airplane when it arrives."
The new service also allows airlines to realize efficiencies in their operations and provide a superior experience for their passengers, Mancini added.Airplane Health Management collects data from the airplane in real-time. The primary source of the data is the airplane central maintenance computer or condition monitoring system. AHM also can collect electronic logbook data from the new Electronic Flight Bag (which Boeing is introducing on the 777-300ER).
AHM continually integrates incoming data from each airplane with basic model design data, in-service experiences reported by airplane operators and industry-wide fleet-performance data for that airplane model.
"The original equipment manufacturer is best-positioned to offer such comprehensive analysis," Mancini said. "We can look across a database wider than that of any specific airline."
If there is a problem with a particular airplane in flight, AHM notifies airline personnel via the Internet or by pager. The notification directs the airline to the Boeing business-to-business Web portal, MyBoeingFleet.com, for flight-specific information that they can use to make informed maintenance decisions.
In addition to diagnosing an airplane problem in flight, AHM also can be used to predict when parts might fail, so that they can be replaced or repaired during a regularly scheduled maintenance check as a preventive measure, rather than at an inconvenient time or place when a part fails unexpectedly.
"Basically, we're providing a single source of information from which airlines can make maintenance decisions and identify trends to support long-term fleet reliability programs," Mancini said. "AHM is both a diagnostic and a prognostic tool."
Another feature of AHM is that it's not limited to just Boeing airplanes. According to Mancini, "We can provide portions of this service for other commercial airplanes, not just our own."
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Commerical Airplnes e-Enabling the Future
At the 2003 Paris Air Show, Boeing unveiled its vision of an "e-Enabled" future. According to this vision, the entire air transport system is tied in to a seamless network, employing a common onboard information and communication infrastructure for the benefit of passengers, flight and cabin crews, airline operations, system performance and the industry.
Nearly two years later, elements from throughout Boeing have brought to life many key aspects of the e-Enabled business environment. And there's more to come.
"Boeing and the industry know this is coming because of things we are experiencing in our daily lives," said Chris Kettering, e-Enabling program director for Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. As an example of this daily-life transformation, Kettering said his mother was a travel agent whose job was "to be a middle person to help communicate what the airline was capable of providing." But today, he said, with the World Wide Web and Internet sites such as Expedia and Travelocity, "people can do that for themselves—and, by the way, do it quicker, easier and, most importantly, cheaper."
Boeing observed that trend and jumped into the information technology world with a variety of offerings that have provided real value to the air transport industry. Among them:
Airplane Health Management, which e-Enables maintenance by letting airlines monitor engine and airframe systems information in real time. AHM is working well at four airlines around the world.
The Boeing Electronic Flight Bag, which e-Enables the flight deck by giving pilots all the information they need to fly the airplane in a handy digital format. The Boeing Electronic Flight Bag became the first commercially certified EFB in November 2003 and has been ordered by seven airlines around the world.
Connexion by Boeing, which brings the fastest available high-speed Internet, data and entertainment connectivity to aircraft in flight. Connexion entered commercial service in May 2004 and has 11 airline customers.
MyBoeingFleet, a secure business-to-business site on the World Wide Web that gives airlines access to Boeing aircraft data such as engineering drawings and flight technical manuals. MyBoeingFleet has more than 10,000 users from more than 130 airlines, who generate more than 5 million hits each month.
Nearly two years later, elements from throughout Boeing have brought to life many key aspects of the e-Enabled business environment. And there's more to come.
"Boeing and the industry know this is coming because of things we are experiencing in our daily lives," said Chris Kettering, e-Enabling program director for Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. As an example of this daily-life transformation, Kettering said his mother was a travel agent whose job was "to be a middle person to help communicate what the airline was capable of providing." But today, he said, with the World Wide Web and Internet sites such as Expedia and Travelocity, "people can do that for themselves—and, by the way, do it quicker, easier and, most importantly, cheaper."
Boeing observed that trend and jumped into the information technology world with a variety of offerings that have provided real value to the air transport industry. Among them:
Airplane Health Management, which e-Enables maintenance by letting airlines monitor engine and airframe systems information in real time. AHM is working well at four airlines around the world.
The Boeing Electronic Flight Bag, which e-Enables the flight deck by giving pilots all the information they need to fly the airplane in a handy digital format. The Boeing Electronic Flight Bag became the first commercially certified EFB in November 2003 and has been ordered by seven airlines around the world.
Connexion by Boeing, which brings the fastest available high-speed Internet, data and entertainment connectivity to aircraft in flight. Connexion entered commercial service in May 2004 and has 11 airline customers.
MyBoeingFleet, a secure business-to-business site on the World Wide Web that gives airlines access to Boeing aircraft data such as engineering drawings and flight technical manuals. MyBoeingFleet has more than 10,000 users from more than 130 airlines, who generate more than 5 million hits each month.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Glass Cockpits on Commerical Aircrafts
Behind the ScreenMar 25, 2009
By Mike Gamauf
Since the earliest days of aviation, pilots have been staring at gauges to help ascertain the condition of their machines and the world around them. Orville and Wilbur had three instruments on their first Flyer: a stopwatch, an anemometer for measuring wind speed and a tachometer. Subsequently and especially since the introduction of instrument flight and the development of the standard T cluster, engineers managed to cover every available inch of cockpit real estate with some type of instrument, button or switch.
As aircraft became more complex, large passenger and military aircraft required a flight engineer to manage the systems and scan the dozens of gauges and lights, thereby freeing the pilots to concentrate on aviating. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the military sought to de-clutter its cockpits by using small cathode ray tubes (CRT) to replace the mechanical gauges and combine the functions of several instruments onto a computer-generated screen. This was the genesis of the glass cockpit - centering initially on the Primary Flight Display (PFD).
From an aircraft systems perspective, the cockpit's traditional round "steam" gauges provide the flight crew with constant status information. It is up to the pilots to scan the gauges, looking for misbehaving temperatures and pressures. However, unless an advisory threshold is reached, causing the Master caution to illuminate, dangerous trends could go unnoticed until too late. A NASA study completed in the 1970s determined that pilots could be just as safe with a cockpit that provides system status on demand, instead of having information presented continuously via dials or tapes, and with the introduction of "glass," designers embraced that concept. Soon, the rows of steam gauges and banks of caution lights gave way to the Multi-Function Display (MFD). This new display was kind of a general store of aviation data, providing a home for the weather radar, flight planning, GPS navigation aids, enhanced ground proximity warning, TCAS II and even control of the comm/nav radios.
From a maintainer's perspective, the all-glass cockpit is an advance, and not. In many ways, the old electromechanical gauges were easy to maintain. If the thing was inoperative, you replaced it. They were relatively inexpensive and many were TSOed items, which made replacements easy to find. About the worst things that could go wrong were discovering the replacement had a short wire bundle and wouldn't reach the connector behind the instrument panel, or you had to apply tiny pieces of tape to the instrument's face for advisory ranges.
By contrast, an all-glass panel provides a seemingly infinite range of malfunctions: entire screens going dark in flight; mode switching that has a mind of its own; black lines; error codes and good old fashioned inoperable - all accompanied by troubleshooting nightmares. Obtaining replacement displays, which alone cost tens of thousands of dollars, plus the additional electronics like symbol generators, and processors can easily deplete your maintenance reserve budget. Keeping such systems operational and safe can be a resource and management headache.
Most pilots have embraced the all-glass cockpit and find the improved situational awareness tools and functionality beneficial to safe flying. With some flight departments postponing new aircraft purchases, now may be a good time to upgrade the cockpit to take advantage of the latest safety technology. This task usually falls on the maintenance manager's shoulders and there are many options from which to choose. How do you make good choices and end up with the best possible system? We asked fellow maintenance managers and upgrade experts to shine a light on what goes on behind the glass.
By Mike Gamauf
Since the earliest days of aviation, pilots have been staring at gauges to help ascertain the condition of their machines and the world around them. Orville and Wilbur had three instruments on their first Flyer: a stopwatch, an anemometer for measuring wind speed and a tachometer. Subsequently and especially since the introduction of instrument flight and the development of the standard T cluster, engineers managed to cover every available inch of cockpit real estate with some type of instrument, button or switch.
As aircraft became more complex, large passenger and military aircraft required a flight engineer to manage the systems and scan the dozens of gauges and lights, thereby freeing the pilots to concentrate on aviating. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the military sought to de-clutter its cockpits by using small cathode ray tubes (CRT) to replace the mechanical gauges and combine the functions of several instruments onto a computer-generated screen. This was the genesis of the glass cockpit - centering initially on the Primary Flight Display (PFD).
From an aircraft systems perspective, the cockpit's traditional round "steam" gauges provide the flight crew with constant status information. It is up to the pilots to scan the gauges, looking for misbehaving temperatures and pressures. However, unless an advisory threshold is reached, causing the Master caution to illuminate, dangerous trends could go unnoticed until too late. A NASA study completed in the 1970s determined that pilots could be just as safe with a cockpit that provides system status on demand, instead of having information presented continuously via dials or tapes, and with the introduction of "glass," designers embraced that concept. Soon, the rows of steam gauges and banks of caution lights gave way to the Multi-Function Display (MFD). This new display was kind of a general store of aviation data, providing a home for the weather radar, flight planning, GPS navigation aids, enhanced ground proximity warning, TCAS II and even control of the comm/nav radios.
From a maintainer's perspective, the all-glass cockpit is an advance, and not. In many ways, the old electromechanical gauges were easy to maintain. If the thing was inoperative, you replaced it. They were relatively inexpensive and many were TSOed items, which made replacements easy to find. About the worst things that could go wrong were discovering the replacement had a short wire bundle and wouldn't reach the connector behind the instrument panel, or you had to apply tiny pieces of tape to the instrument's face for advisory ranges.
By contrast, an all-glass panel provides a seemingly infinite range of malfunctions: entire screens going dark in flight; mode switching that has a mind of its own; black lines; error codes and good old fashioned inoperable - all accompanied by troubleshooting nightmares. Obtaining replacement displays, which alone cost tens of thousands of dollars, plus the additional electronics like symbol generators, and processors can easily deplete your maintenance reserve budget. Keeping such systems operational and safe can be a resource and management headache.
Most pilots have embraced the all-glass cockpit and find the improved situational awareness tools and functionality beneficial to safe flying. With some flight departments postponing new aircraft purchases, now may be a good time to upgrade the cockpit to take advantage of the latest safety technology. This task usually falls on the maintenance manager's shoulders and there are many options from which to choose. How do you make good choices and end up with the best possible system? We asked fellow maintenance managers and upgrade experts to shine a light on what goes on behind the glass.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
