This customer partnered with FLYHT to leverage FLYHT’s real-time onboard data acquisition and distribution system. Utilizing FLYHT technology, the company has eliminated labor intensive, and error prone processes related to extraction and analysis of aircraft engine performance and predictive maintenance. The result is a streamlined operation that improves reliability and operational efficiency. FLYHT’s key partners that make the solution possible are AWS and Iridium.
Engine Trend Monitoring is the use of engine operational data (such as fan speeds, engine temperatures, fuel flow, outside air temperature, airspeed and altitude) to pre‑emptively find symptoms of damage, deterioration, or excessive wear. It is a technique used by engine manufacturers that continuously monitors the health of an aircraft’s engines. Data is extracted by the airline and then sent to the engine manufacturer. Without automation, the desired operational data needs to be manually extracted per aircraft, for all flights in a desired period of time. The data then needs to be uploaded to a PC, and then subsequently uploaded to a location where it can be accessed by the engine service provider. To ensure accuracy and consistency for each flight, this becomes a detail oriented and time‑consuming task. The customer was looking for a way to automate the monitoring to enhance accuracy, completeness and timeliness of data.
FLYHT worked with the company to implement FLYHT’s Automated Engine Trend Reporting on their fleet of CRJ-900 series aircraft. There are two components to this solution:
The AFIRS 228 system consists of several components that are installed on the aircraft. The data acquisition unit is connected into aircraft interfaces to obtain aircraft data (Flight Data Recorder data, engine data, fuel data, GPS data, discrete data among other sets of data). Once the data is obtained, the data acquisition contains onboard logic applications to help the unit determine what needs to be put together to form the reports that are required. In this case, the unit would gather engine data and prepare reports to be sent out at takeoff and during stable cruise (as requested by the customer). The data acquisition unit will then send the reports out over the Iridium based antenna, which is also installed as part of the FLYHT hardware.
The Automated Engine Trend data is transmitted automatically, in real-time, during every flight. Uptime Cloud ground application is an AWS hosted application utilizing Amazon VPC, Amazon EC2, Amazon Route 53, Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) and Amazon RDS services.
This results in a solution that provides consistent, accurate and timely engine data directly from the plane that helps the operator and engine manufacturer to react quickly and proactively to degrading performance and potential failures.
AWS’s cost-effective, secure and rich service set allowed FLYHT to deliver customer value quickly and at a long-term sustainable cost.
Using FLYHT’s Automated Engine Trend Data, the customer and engine manufacturers can detect signs of deterioration as well as maintenance issues on aircraft engines. By tracking real‑time engine data, the health and stability of the engines are monitored, and issues can be proactively addressed before they cause serious damage. Diagnosing the problems early reduces potential for catastrophic and/or costly failures—being able to predict maintenance requirements ahead of time helps optimize maintenance logistics and reduce the impact of downtimes.
With AWS services and support, FLYHT provides robust, innovative and cost-effective solutions for our customers.
A multinational corporation has operations in over 150 countries and employs over 50,000 people worldwide. The company operates two CRJ 900 series aircraft for corporate shuttle use.
FLYHT provides airlines with Actionable Intelligence to transform operational insight into immediate, quantifiable action, delivering industry leading solutions to improve aviation safety, efficiency and profitability. This unique capability is driven by FLYHT’s patented aircraft certified hardware products including AFIRS™, a satcom aircraft interface device which enables real-time streaming of flight information, cockpit voice and black box data streaming and TAMDAR™, which aggregates and streams airborne weather data in real-time. FLYHT is headquartered in Calgary, Canada with an office in Littleton, Colorado, and is an AS9100 Quality registered company. For more information, view our latest presentation here
