S1000D standard takes flight as fighters and airliners join forces

A collaboration between the Air Transport Association (ATA), Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) is injecting civil aviation requirements into the S1000D specification, says the ATA's Bruce Cronin, creating a single, global standard for technical publications. DCLnews reports.

The Air Transport Association (ATA) is collaborating with the Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) to develop new technical publication standards that will bring together civil and military aviation. As both sides of the industry have similar issues when it comes to fixing planes, this makes sense. When completed, these standards will be incorporated into the ASD's S1000D specification, a military standard for technical documentation. The new effort will mothball previous work to develop a next generation civil aviation standard from the ATA called Future Data Exchange (FDE). The ATA's iSpec2200 specification, however, will still be maintained and published.

One of the main reasons for the collaborative arrangement is to align commercial and military requirements. This will ease the burden and costs on a shared supply chain that has traditionally supported two standards. Additionally, the ATA’s Future Data Exchange project was progressing too slowly. According to Bruce Cronin, technical documentation manager at America West Airlines and advisor to the ATA, this turned out to be no bad thing.

"We had experts do a cursory analysis of both specifications, the FDE and S1000D, and they found that roughly 80% of what was envisioned in FDE was already in S1000D. So that was clearly the way to go," he explains.

Data-centric

Cronin says the major strength of S1000D, which is based on SGML/XML, is it is a "data-centric" specification. It is not based on the linear manual - which, even when in electronic form, owes more to the days of printed paper.

"We had experts do a cursory analysis of both specifications, the Future Data Exchange (FDE) and S1000D, and they found that roughly 80% of what was envisioned in FDE was already in S1000D. So that was clearly the way to go…"

"Today's electronic manuals which we use to fix airplanes are still based on the concept of the maintenance manual, illustrated parts catalog and troubleshooting manual," he says. "They are separate entities and even though they are hyperlinked you typically end up jumping back and forth between each one."

The drawback with this concept is manufacturers don't necessarily update each of these different manuals at the same time – and also it's not the way airplanes are fixed; you don’t read it in order, you go in the order of the information you need.

"A flight operations manual and maintenance manual, for example, may not be on the same revision cycle - they could be a few months apart, which means the data isn't always correlated," Cronin says.

Always current

Because S1000D is based on data chunks and not on manuals, information can be kept current and in one location.

Who's using S1000D today?

According to industry insiders, nearly all manufacturers of aircraft and aircraft parts are already getting involved in using the S1000D specification. If they make planes and equipment for both military and civil aviation they are actively running at least pilot projects to provide documentation in S1000D and iSpec2200. If your company is using S1000D why not contact DCLnews editorial and we'll write up a story about your experience of using the specification.

"With S1000D, there is no long-winded searching and jumping between manuals. All the information you need is presented in one place," explains Cronin. "So when a pilot is alerted to an engine concern he will enter it into his system. Then when the airplane lands the technician will log it into his system and will be able to see all the data related to the engine problem, right away, without searching. He'll see how to troubleshoot the problem, what parts are available, or whether he can put it on MEL (Minimum Equipment List) and defer it."

Another inefficiency with the current system is if a maintenance manual is updated the entire document is re-done and the items that have been changed since the last revision are flagged - just as was done in the paper world.

"In the data-centric world of S1000D it's totally different," says Cronin. "You only send out the information that has actually changed - you simply update the database. So the amount of data being processed is significantly reduced."

Happy customers

Cronin is quick to point out that the benefits of using S1000D aren't just restricted to those who work in the airline industry; airline passengers will benefit too.

"When you encounter an unusual problem on an airplane, it can take a maintenance technician up to an hour of researching manuals to even know where to start," says Cronin, who began his career as an aircraft mechanic, first in the USAF, then in civil aviation. "But with S1000D you get more accurate data in the hands of the mechanic far faster. And the faster you get airplanes fixed (while maintaining safety) the less delays and cancellations there are - which makes for happy customers."

But the big question is: when will the ATA's civil aviation requirements be incorporated into S1000D?

"The Technical Publications Specification Maintenance Group (TPSMG), who develop and maintain S1000D, released version 2.2 in May this year," Cronin says. "So we've talked to the TPSMG Executive Committee about shooting for version 2.3 to incorporate some of the civil aviation requirements - as a starting point. Version 2.3 is expected to be released by mid to late 2006; so that's our goal. But this depends largely on the number of industry volunteers we can get to assist with ATA’s e-Business Program.”

DCLnews Editorial