INSIDE STORY:
Aircraft Maintenance Wings Onto The Web
Getting manufacturers' updates and tech documentation to the right engineers in aircraft maintenance hangars is no easy task, but FLS Aerospace is meeting the challenge. John Shreeve reports.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST challenges facing aircraft maintenance firms is getting the most up-to-date information to their engineers in the hangars and at line stations around the world. Aircraft regularly undergo design changes and so service bulletins and modifications need to be looked at as soon as they are released by the air-framers or manufacturers.

"In the past it was a nightmare. Updates could get delayed in the post and potentially the company wouldn't receive important information until if was too late," says Andrew Hoad, Group Vice President of Material Solutions at FLS Aerospace, the Danish-owned aircraft maintenance firm with bases in Dublin, England and Denmark. "Even if things were running smoothly, printed materials or CD-ROMs would first be delivered to our library, get vetted, then be circulated to technical services engineers. Finally they would get to the engineer on the shop floor - a long-winded process."

Now, aircraft manufacturers make updates and modifications available via the Internet, which means they can be delivered to the relevant operative instantly.

"One of the online services we use is MyBoeingFleet.com," says Hoad. "It's a very powerful tool that can be configured for a particular aircraft type or part. And any information coming out of Boeing about those planes or parts can be directed to the person who needs to deal with it. If it's flight controls' information, it goes straight to the desk of our man in flight controls."

Getting up-to-date information to the right operatives quickly is essential, both from a safety and administrative point-of-view. The air-worthiness authorities have strict regulations forbidding aircraft maintenance companies from working on airplanes without the latest manuals and updates.

"When the air-worthiness people come and audit, the first thing they check is whether the technical documentation for the airplanes in the hangars is up-to-date," relates Hoad. "In the past, it was easier to get caught out. The airline would supply their manuals, but you couldn't always be sure you had the latest modifications. Now you simply hook into the Boeing website and there they are - it's immediate."

Technical Drawings
Electronic delivery of technical data has many other advantages. MyBoeingFleet.com, for example, provides access to drawings of aircraft parts. So when FLS Aerospace needs to do a design change or a repair, they can download the drawings and modify them with other software tools. Before web services like this existed, they had to copy the drawings and modify them by hand.

In the aircraft hangars, engineers have access to all the technical documentation they need - wiring diagrams, illustrated parts catalogues, and maintenance and fault isolation manuals. They work from mobile benches that come complete with PCs and the tools they need to make repairs or modifications. They also have access to FLS Aerospace's mainframe computer system, which allows them to log man-hours and access technical information produced by the company in-house.

Streamlined as this system undoubtedly is, there are downsides.

"Currently, one of the biggest issues we face is upgrading the network to be able to handle the sheer volumes of traffic that go through it all day long," says Hoad. "There's so much thirst for data, the system can get swamped at peak times and the whole thing crashes."

Despite such problems, Hoad firmly believes that electronic delivery of data is the way ahead in the aircraft maintenance industry.

"It's absolutely the way to go," he says.

Electronic Technical Logs
Another area where technology is moving the aircraft maintenance industry forwards is the Electronic Technical Log, a handheld device that is being pioneered by FLS Aerospace in conjunction with a company called CoreData. When an aircraft is being prepared for departure, the pilot and engineer have to sign a logbook stating that the airplane is fit to fly. These are called Technical Logs and have traditionally been paper-based, as well as being something of an administrative headache.

The Electronic Technical Log, as its name suggests, is an electronic version of the technical log. The big difference is it streamlines the whole process and cuts out the administrative paper chase. The pilot and engineer simply fill out the necessary fields, hit a button confirming the plane is serviceable, and the completed log is sent via GSM to a mainframe computer.

"With Electronic Technical Logs we are able to know instantly the state of that airplane and can make that information available via a website to the airlines, who are required by air worthiness regulations to know at any given time the state of their fleet," says Hoad. "In the past, we would have informed the airlines by sending large amounts of paper to them, supplemented by regular meetings. "

Pilots and engineers, however, are not yet fully convinced.

"There's still a propensity to prefer paper," says Hoad. "So the challenge is convincing them that this is a safe and acceptable product. But they'll get used to it. Aside from anything else, within the next five years or so, this type of product may no longer be a separate unit. Boeing and Airbus will probably build it into the airplane's standard avionics fit and the pilots will be filling out their Electronic Tech Logs, along with programming the navigation computer. It'll become second nature."

6/6/2002
DCLnews Editorial

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