Back to Air Transport IT Review - Issue 2, September 2010

The digital aircraft

Airborne IT management - the next frontier

The IT network revolution is now fully embracing the aircraft, closing the data loop and offering tantalising opportunities to reduce costs, optimize processes and enhance customer service. It won't happen all at once, but it will happen over time.

One of the most active conversations across the industry may be the issue of digital aircraft, but there's often a distance between people's interpretations of what it means. For some, it's the new world of connectivity as seen in the next generation of aircraft such as the 787, A350 and A380. But for others, digital has been around for 25 years in the form of ACARS.

"For us, digital aircraft - sometimes called 'IT-enabled', 'connected' or 'e-enabled' aircraft - means airborne IT, enabling flexible applications," according to Philip Clinch, SITA's Vice President of Aircraft Services. "It means the aircraft becoming more like the airport, where the airline IT department is used to handling a variety of IT applications such as passenger management, security, check-in, boarding and so on.

"Those applications are generally managed by the airline from a central IT system in each airport. Each aircraft is now going to become like the airport, with IT specialists managing the systems in the plane."

Flexible platforms

ACARS is now near-ubiquitous. It is a complex but integrated package for flight operations and aircraft maintenance application. However, once it's installed in the aircraft, it can only work one way.

With the digital aircraft, on the other hand, the ACARS-style approach is effectively split into two separate components - the cockpit IT platform that manages air-ground IP communications and a range of autonomous applications that are hosted on the platform.

Instead of vendor software that allows only parameter configuration, the result is a platform using generic operating systems and hosting multiple applications that can be dropped in and out, updated, modified - as needed by the crew and the individual airline at any one time.

Technical challenges

The digital aircraft uses an electronic flight bag, with real-time charts, briefings, NOTAMs, loading calculators an so forth. It can also include electronic logbooks, loadable software aircraft part updates, flight ops quality assurance (FOQA) downloads and cabin management applications, from briefings to credit card authorization.

While the technology to make this happen is increasingly available, both in new aircraft and for retrofitting, there are technical challenges that need to be addressed by every airline intent on using the benefits (see 'Optimizing electronic flight bags' for examples of efficiency gains).

Connectivity

The first is network connectivity across the air-ground IP networks - including issues such as Internet domains, firewalls, security certificates. Each aircraft will become a domain. There'll be a DNS server inside the aircraft that must be configured correctly.

There must be sufficient bandwidth availability to deal with the circulation of data between the aircraft and the ground. The different communications gateways need to be managed, whether cellular, satellite or Wi-Fi.

Applications

The applications need to be carefully managed, to ensure they have been filled with the correct data and that they are synchronized and prioritized. If a manual is being uploaded that's needed for take-off and someone else is working on an issue of secondary level importance, such as duty free loading, the priority has to be managed.

Gradual change, not big bang

"Airlines will inevitably manage the digitization of their fleet incrementally," concludes Philip Clinch. "Even when you've installed new digital cockpit IT systems, you're likely to still have ACARS doing what it's always done, because you won't be able to stop using it immediately.

"And as each aircraft gets added to the network, you'll need to decide on a case by case basis what data gets sent to which aircraft at which time via which link.

"You need a server on the ground that's capable of accomplishing that and managing both ACARS and the cockpit IT network - so that both links stay available. And remember, you won't necessarily have access to the network at every airport, certainly not for a few years yet."

The connected aircraft will facilitate savings across a broad range of processes. It will remove paper from the system, close the loop with the business as a whole and complete the connection with the workforce and the passenger.

There may be no single killer application, according to Joe McGoldrick, CEO of Aircraft Management Technologies: "But when you take the full view of the connected aircraft, when you start streamlining and applying lean techniques across the various business processes that affect the aircraft - that's when you get the real killer return on investment."