By: Alison Wilds
The use of embedded sensors in the complex systems and sub-systems in modern aircraft have and will continue to provide a number of significant benefits to aircraft operators. Hitherto, the maintenance of assets involved effecting a repair or replacement once a part or parts had failed together with the application of preventative tasks to keep the equipment from failing. This regime could not predict unscheduled maintenance events precipitated by failures in complex pieces of machinery which were wholly random in nature.
Embedded sensors in modern aircraft systems and sub-systems and the processing of remote real time data derived from those sensors is able to provide condition based monitoring, the detection and diagnosis of current and developing failures and a prognosis of when a system or component will fail.
The knowledge which OEMs have gained from the collection and analysis of an ever growing bank of data from operators of their equipment has, through their enhanced knowledge of the product, led them to develop through life service products, pursuant to which the OEM takes responsibility for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of the equipment in return for the payment by the aircraft operator of a monthly fee. In turn through operators using these through life products, the OEM is able acquire more knowledge about that product's through life performance and the different wear out characteristics of different components with a view to continuing to improve its through life offering.
The benefits to the operator of remote real time monitoring of aircraft and engines by the transmission of information from the embedded sensors on the aircraft and engines have been real and tangible in an industry which operates often on very thin profit margins or in the recent troubled economic times at a loss. Hence, any cost saving measure should be welcomed by airlines.
Amongst the tangible benefits which airlines are experiencing from this new technology are:
Ÿ there
are less incidents of unplanned maintenance thus reducing cancellation and/or
delays in departure/arrival times of the operator's aircraft with the
consequent passenger disruption. This
improved readiness enhances the operator's brand and reputation;
Ÿ the
operator can predict the cause of the fault faster and with more accuracy, thus
reducing man hours and costs spent trying to find the problem. Maintenance actions are minimised - it can
potentially avoid the "no fault found" scenario – again a cost saving
to the operator;
Ÿ the
ability to plan unscheduled maintenance, which in theory should give the
operator the time to locate the necessary parts, manpower and allocate the
space required to rectify the fault. As
the operator is able to predict when the fault will occur in this should lead
to cost savings as work can be performed during normal working hours;
Ÿ it
increases the safety of the equipment; and
Ÿ the
operator can allocate costly resources elsewhere – the airline may not need to
maintain a large inventory of parts, particularly where the airline has signed
up to a through life care agreement with an OEM.
So what of the future – what will we see as
shaping this part of the aviation sector if step changes continue as regards
condition-based monitoring, detection and diagnosis of current and developing
failures?
Here are a few observations:
Ÿ Will
the number of engineers employed by operators be reduced thus producing further
cost saving for airlines on the basis that these new systems will detect the
fault more quickly? New or different
business models may need to be developed to keep in line with the rapid pace of
technology. It is highly likely there
will be an increasing requirement for IT literate aeronautical engineers with
the ability to diagnose and analyse data being fed to them.
Ÿ Will
there be a lower cost to operators of the through life product offering by OEMs,
or will the pricing stay more or less the same increasing in line with
inflation. Will the OEM's profit margin increase
as their investment in the development of the through life product starts to
repay itself or will we see some of those cost savings being passed back to the
operator with a lower priced product offering?
Ÿ The
period at the end of a lease when the airline takes the aircraft out of service
for inspection/examination of the aircraft records will shorten. In the next generation of aircraft all
information will be readily available and it is anticipated that the period of
handover between lessees will be very short, maybe one day and the engine
boroscope examination could then be a thing of the past. Hence, the airline lessee will be able to use
its leased aircraft for revenue generating traffic for much longer.
Ÿ Will
there be a change to the traditional aircraft leasing model maintained by
aircraft lessors? With the increasing
speed of the implementation of new technology, will that lead to more airlines demanding
newer leased aircraft to take advantage of the latest and most technologically
advanced aircraft model, particularly if that leads to substantive cost savings
for their operation? That, in turn, could
lead to a different type of leasing model from the current model where a
lessor's aircraft acquisition cost is amortised over a period of up to the
first 12 years of its life; the later years of its life (averaging
25 years) being profit for the lessor.
Currently 75% of aircraft are still in service at the age of
20 years, although since the 2008 financial crisis a growing number of
aircraft younger than 20 years have been "parted out". Will further step changes in aircraft
technology lead to aircraft having shorter lives and lease rental increasing to
amortise more quickly a lessor's acquisition cost?
Ÿ There
is likely to be a substantial change to the prescribed maintenance programmes
for each aircraft type and their engines, but when will we see that?. The life of many parts is likely to be
extended over and above their prescribed current lives if data analysed by the
OEMs shows that under the current regime the equipment does not need to be
maintained as frequently as is currently mandated. The increasing use of composites in the
manufacture of aircraft will also have an impact on the timing and types of
maintenance carried out. On the
assumption that aircraft and parts do not need to be maintained as often, there
is no reason to suppose that we will not see an "on condition"
airframe in the future and new maintenance standards established. In any event, less time should be spent
carrying out "heavy" checks because much of that maintenance will
have already been carried out in routine maintenance identified from the data
derived from aircraft systems. This
should lead to further cost savings for airlines in an industry which often
operates on very thin profit margins or none at all, particularly in times of
recession. The changing pattern in any
maintenance regime will require approval by regulators, insurers and ultimately
changes to documentation which govern the use of aircraft, for instance, aircraft
leases – all of which may not happen quickly and will be reliant on the
regulators and others getting comfortable and being confident that safety will
not be compromised.
Ÿ There
will be the need for a more integrated product offering between the
manufacturers of equipment whose equipment and/or components form part of the
aircraft so that any information/data which an operator receives from embedded
sensors from these products does not conflict with information being received by
the operator about other components or systems on the aircraft. This then should produce more reliable
prognostics for the operator. To achieve
this each manufacturer of each of the different products will need to break
down barriers to work together, share knowledge, so that data is synchronised
from multiple sub-systems to detect accurately a potential adverse event; the
aim being to produce a more integrated platform to feed back that information
to the operator so that it obtains an accurate diagnosis of the problem. This may be difficult to achieve as cultural
and commercial barriers will need to be broken down, OEMs have invested time,
effort and money in their product, their shareholders will want to see a return
on that investment. To break down these
barriers this could require a sharing of commercial sensitive information
considered crucial to that OEMs product and which is regarded as important by
them as offering them a commercial competitive advantage to them or better
solution to the end user than others in the same market. All this will take time!
Ÿ Safety
will be improved – the analysis of data should allow for further development of
inbuilt safety resources as part of the design of the equipment/component.
Ÿ The
rate of data transfer from aircraft to ground will need to be improved to allow
all data from the operation of civil aircraft to be quickly transmitted,
examined and compared. The current
bandwidth for data transfer is too limited which means that current methods of
transfer, i.e. via satellite, is too expensive to be used for regular data
transfer, ACARS is also too slow.
Ÿ Finally,
will we see aircraft operators using information which is generated by these
embedded sensors as a means of making money out of that information? Often the ownership of information produced
by the operation of the aircraft/engine is inadequately dealt with in through
life product agreements. There is value
in this information. Will we see more complex
intellectual property provisions emerge?
