Jetrader - November/December 2013 - 21

Feren explained that ﬁrms like his don't want to be caught
in a transition situation where an aircraft is out of service and
not producing rent.
"We need to know months in advance what we're doing to do, or
we're going to wind up with an AOG [Aircraft on Ground], and that's
destructive in many ways. So we and our peer group companies
are all over advance planning," Feren said. "Advance placement is
only possible with a thorough review of the [airplane's] records.
You'd be surprised how little attention some operators put into
having the records in a highly organized, easy-to-digest form.
Sometimes you spend a week just collecting them."
Boeing's Zolotusky recalls similar experiences that still remain
all too common.
"When you have an airplane, it comes with a big pile of
paper that you have to worry about," he said. "And if you got
the airplane in a default case, and you didn't get the paper trail
or the associated records for the plane, you have nothing. You're
then exposed to millions of dollars of expense to restore that
paper trail," Zolotusky said.
"What we're doing with today's aircraft maintenance documentation is attempting to move that paper trail into the 21st
century by digitizing it, but it's easier said than done," he said.

Going Digital
For many operators, the concept of scanning aircraft records,
training information and other data to transform it into digital
information is well understood, particularly among bigger airlines.
But the digital "stream" that's made possible by newer and
more "electric" jets like Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner family
promises to far eclipse the data ﬂow of earlier jets.
"The Boeing 777, ﬁrst delivered in 1995, was designed to be
an electronic-enabled airplane," said Per Norèn, vice president for
digital aviation at Boeing's Commercial Aviation's Services unit.
"It transmitted about a megabyte per ﬂight. The next generation,
the 787, transmits 29 megabytes a ﬂight. You don't need all that
data all of the time, but you need some of it some of the time.
That's a problem statement. What data do you need [and] when
to operate efﬁciently?" Norèn said.

The digital "stream" that's made
possible by newer and more
"electric" jets like Boeing's new 787
Dreamliner family promises to far
eclipse the data flow of earlier jets.
Among tools Boeing provides to tap the value in the new
digital ﬂow is its Maintenance Performance Toolbox, an integrated
suite of software applications available as a Boeing-hosted service
on its online customer portal, MyBoeingFleet.com. It includes
key maintenance documents, and its design allows fault data to
be linked to speciﬁc maintenance actions while its digital data
(including 3D graphics) enables quick access to repair history and
correct repair procedures. Many of its applications are included
pro forma on the new 787.
"For example, all the plane's structural repair records, and
any deviations, can be captured and become part of the record
under Toolbox's Structures tab," Floyd said. "The airline or lessor
gets that data, and it's easy to pass this information from one
operator to another."
The Toolbox's Systems tab, he explained, can yield digital
training information that can be used by maintenance personnel who may require planeside refresher training due to longer
maintenance intervals on the new jets. "Thanks to being digital,
it's essentially refresher training on demand," Floyd said.

Today's Tools
Unlike the previous generation of jetliners that ﬁrst relied
on more onboard computing power, and whose software was
installed via the "ﬂoppy disk," today's 787, for example, has
a large number of so-called "loadable software aircraft parts"
(LSAPs) on the airplane.
"There are more LSAPs on the 787 than any airplane before
it," said Dennis Floyd, vice president for services marketing and
business development for Boeing. Floyd said the physical media
utilized before have mostly given way to wireless transmission
on new-model airplanes that, given security concerns, require
robust systems and processes to safeguard this airplane software.
"Is this making it more complex and difﬁcult to update an
airplane when it goes from one operator to another?" Floyd asked.
"We're getting pretty good experience in that regard, and now
that we've had planes in service for a while, there really haven't
been challenges in wirelessly loading and updating software parts.
We're now demystifying that," Floyd said.
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06/10/12 10:36

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Jetrader - November/December 2013

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