Tag: Featured Story

Johann Bordais says it is all well and good to design, manufacture and deliver an aircraft but it is support for the customer afterwards that is the best way to establish a good reputation in the industry. He feels that Embraer Services & Support (ES&S) has achieved this, coming at the top of a number of independent aviation surveys. The company has manufactured more than 8,000 aircraft and still supports one very early EMB 110 Bandeirante, now some 45 years old.

Following the abortive deal with Boeing, ES&S has refocused and now works across all divisions of the company – Commercial and Executive Aviation, Defense & Security and Agricultural Aviation. That means good ideas from one sector can be quickly adopted and adapted by another to suit its customer base.

A good example of this intra-company cooperation is the Sorocaba Service Center, just over 100 miles west of the company’s main facility at São José dos Campos. This was established in 2014 and has been operated primarily for the Executive Jets division, providing maintenance, interior refurbishment, hangarage, airport services, stopover assistance and aircraft preservation. In addition, it has workshops for component overhaul and the capability to perform aircraft modifications, such as the conversion of Legacy 450 jets into Praetor 500 jets.

The Center recently doubled its capacity from 20,000 m² to 40,000 m² and now has four hangars, three of which are dedicated to MRO services and one to support fixed-base operator (FBO) operations. The extra space will not only cater for the expansion of business aviation in Brazil but can be used for commercial and defense aviation customers.

Another example is an MoU signed with Fokker Services and Fokker Techniek in October 2021, to explore opportunities in the defense, commercial and support markets. Bordais says there are similarities between Embraer and Fokker Services as both are well-known and reputable aerospace companies with roots in building aircraft and supporting aircraft fleets worldwide.

As a result, the MoU the companies announced, in July, the intention to deepen the collaboration in several projects, mainly related to the services and support fields. The companies are looking at aftermarket support topics, such as aircraft modifications and customization, program support, logistics, repair services. Looking further in the future, conversion and completion of Special Mission and Special Transportation aircraft in Defense, including collaboration for the C-390 multi-mission aircraft, whilst for the Commercial aviation market, engineering, repair, and logistics support will be key elements to be explored, in addition to Hydrogen Powered Aircraft development.

Previously, in May, Embraer announced a multi-year agreement for Fokker Services to provide MRO services covering 60-part numbers of engine line replaceable units (LRUs) enrolled in Embraer’s Pool Program. The Pool Program, which supports Embraer’s first-generation E-Jets aircraft, now covers 700 E170, E175, E190 and E195 aircraft flying with more than 50 airlines worldwide. The latest contract announced was with LOT Polish Airlines, which, at Farnborough, renewed and added seven E-Jets to the original contract, with the Pool now covering a total of 44 aircraft and over 300 components.

A major project for ES&S is the E-Jets Passenger to Freight (P2F) conversion, which was launched in March this year. This will be based on the E190 and the E195 and is intended to fill the gap between turboprops and narrowbodies while replacing less fuel-efficient regional jet freighters.

Bordais says the timing is perfect as the e-commerce market is still expanding and the aircraft’s field performance means it can utilise a range of smaller airports than larger narrowbody freighters, reducing delivery times. Feedstock is available as many earlier E-Jets that entered service around 10-15 years ago are now emerging from long term leases and being replaced. The conversion should extend their life by another 10-15 years. The company sees a requirement for 700 aircraft over the next 20 years and is aiming for a 20% market share.

The initial conversions will be carried out at São José dos Campos. This will include a main deck front cargo door; cargo handling system; floor reinforcement; 9G Rigid Cargo Barrier with access door; cargo smoke detection system, including Class E extinguishers in the upper cargo compartment; Air Management System changes (cooling, pressurization, etc); interior removal and provisions for hazardous material transportation. The company is currently evaluating the work package and looking at where the expertise of outside suppliers might offer advantages.

The first conversion should take seven to eight months and be completed and certified in 2024, but this should reduce to three months as production ramps up to five a year in 2025 and eventually to 10-12 per year. If there is sufficient demand, further conversion could be added, based on customer location.

The program kicked off in May with an agreement with Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) for 10 conversions. At Farnborough, in July, NAC announced an MoU to place the first two E190F conversions with Astral Aviation, based in Nairobi, Kenya, while Embraer signed a firm order for a further 10 Embraer conversions with an undisclosed customer.

See related story on Embraer’s Beacon product next page.

If an aircraft encounters a technical fault, there is a complex process to be followed to ensure its resolution and a return to operational service. Unfortunately, it is so complex that there are systemic inefficiencies built in. There are so many different departments involved, along with lack of systemized resources, communication tools and data overload, that delays are inevitable. The knock on effect of these include delays to scheduled maintenance, grounded aircraft, the need for spare aircraft, crew rescheduling because of duty times, passenger compensation and airline reputational damage.

Back in 2016, EmbraerX, the OEM’s innovation accelerator, decided to take a look and see if a new approach could be developed, launching a new concept now called Beacon. Starting out in the executive aviation sector, it has achieved considerable success with airlines in the last nine months.

By applying a human-centric approach and a web-based solution, Beacon brought together all the resources and people that are necessary to resolve a problem. These can be tailored to the requirements of individual operators. Once a problem is raised, it is assigned a case number and everyone is alerted. In addition, Beacon looks at maintenance records and pulls together the repair procedure for the mechanic and the parts required to complete the work. That drawdown can also be passed to the inventory management section of the company’s ERP system. Crucially, it also brings up the average repair time. This early warning allows maintenance control to contact flight operations if a lengthy delay is likely, allowing them find a replacement aircraft and avoid all the crew and passenger issues outlined above.

The size of the problem, says Marco Cesarino, director of product, can be judged from the fact that, in 2019, 24 million flights in the U. S. that were delayed or cancelled cost the industry $33 billion. He adds that 80% of the time needed to resolve a problem in the traditional way is devoted to coordination rather than to the actual fix.

In October 2021, EmbraerX signed a multi-year agreement with Republic Airways for the use of Beacon, which is supporting the airline’s digital transformation and a fleet of over 200 Embraer E170/175 aircraft. The relationship with Republic actually started in January 2020, when the company partnered with Beacon as its launch customer for the commercial aviation segment in the U. S. By implementing Beacon, Republic and their whole suite of maintenance service partners gained a competitive advantage thanks to the platform’s efficiencies in resolving maintenance cases. As an early adopter of Beacon, Republic has been validating and testing Beacon’s product features with its users in the large regional independent operators’ segment.

Over the first six months of 2021, Republic saw an average delay decrease as they adopted Beacon at their base stations. As traveling took off and Republic flight volume increased, their overall out-of-service delay time held steady, making a case for Beacon’s technology in managing interruptions and accelerating return-to-service time.

In June, Aeromexico Connect started to test the Beacon platform, supporting a fleet of more than 40 E190/195 aircraft. Beacon will be integrated into the airline’s line stations with further tests including the airline’s on-call maintenance providers.

Farnborough saw two announcements – JetBlue and Binter Canarias. The JetBlue trial will be based in New York and Boston, with over 50 E190s, and gradually expand to other airports and routes, however, the Binter trial is possibly the most interesting.

This will start in September, with five E195s, but, because Beacon is agnostic, the airline’s 26 ATR 72s can be included later. The airline operates in the Canary Islands, over 1,000 miles southwest of Madrid, with the E195s providing links to Europe while the ATR 72s operate essential air services throughout the archipelago. Obviously, a technical defect on any of the islands can present a logistical nightmare, so a fast return to service using Beacon offers major advantages.

Tadhg Dillon, chief commercial officer at Shannon Engine Support (SES), says the company first noticed pandemic activity in China, its biggest market, in mid-January 2020. Within 30 days, airline operations had fallen significantly. By mid-March, the effect was global and airlines entered survival mode and for the first three months, payment deferrals were the main ask from the customers.

For SES, it switched from an office-based to a home-based company within 24 hours, with associated IT and communication challenges to solve in a very short period of time. With no visits possible, all negotiations were carried out online and contracts transferred electronically.

SES had to review its own cash flow situation before it could start any negotiation on medium term solutions with its customers.

At the same time, airlines returned short term lease engines, there were no lease extensions (normally about 25% of leases are extended) and Early Termination Options were exercised. Unfortunately, there were also some bankruptcies, meaning engines had to be repossessed while working remotely. Global Covid restrictions meant there was no access to the customer site, limited resources and transport options, so it was a very difficult time.

As part of their cash conservation program, airlines also removed long term lease engines and installed them on stored aircraft, keeping the rest of the fleet flying with their own powerplants. In that way, while they had to keep paying the lease rental, they could save on the maintenance reserves, although this had a negative cash impact to SES.

The first signs of recovery came from China in June 2020, which meant they were flying when others were grounded. That lasted until early 2021, when another COVID wave hit.

U. S. Makes a Come Back First, Then Europe

He says recovery was based on vaccine distribution, but, given the numbers, it would take a long time, as well as passengers regaining the confidence to fly. The U. S. came back fast, both through mass vaccination and a political will to restart the economy, and its domestic market is now only marginally down from the high levels in 2019.

Of course, the demand was mainly for domestic flights, which played to the company’s strengths, as it specialises in the CFM56 and LEAP series engines, powering the Airbus A320ceo/neo family and Boeing 737NG/MAX.

Europe came back next and its single aisle fleet is now 90% of 2019 levels. Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa have been slower, although there is growth. This is still a recovery situation, he says, and one of the main factors is airline profitability, or lack of it. There is demand and, while prices are suppressed versus 2019, they are trending in the right direction.

However, he adds there are two major regions for SES that are proving to be very challenging. Recent figures from China suggest something of a recovery but, while aircraft are flying, the yields for the airlines is unknown. The other is Russia – and, he says, it won’t be back for some time. The company has recovered 20-25% of its engines but there are significant numbers that it has been unable to retrieve.

Taking a broader view, he says that, in 2019, there was massive demand and people were asking when it would peak. From the SES point of view, looking across the aircraft leasing and MRO markets, as well as engine leasing, there were strains on the system. Shop visit (SV) slots were scarce and there were supply chain issues with parts. That reduced the throughput in the shops, which resulted in very high demand for spare engines.

Now, the industry is almost back at the same situation for different reasons. He says a lot of the MROs, airlines and suppliers let go of a huge number of people during the pandemic because of their financial situation. Replacements are difficult to find and are usually much less experienced than the previous staff, as well as increasing turnaround times. Supply chain issues now involve both new parts from OEMs and used serviceable material (USM). There is also a focus on newer generation engines and resolving their technical problems.

He says that, pre-pandemic, the competition was usually other lessors or MROs that might have engines available. That changed as airlines wanted to avoid leasing and maintenance costs, seeing it as negative cash flow. Instead, they would look at alternatives from a financial perspective, such as the need to fly the aircraft and, if they did, the maximum they could pay for an engine, based on passenger demand. They also considered using an engine from another aircraft, using a spare that was on the ground, or leasing an aircraft on a power by the hour basis, Additional competition now came from aircraft lessors with aircraft on the ground, airlines that wanted to lease an engine to another airline and aircraft part out organizations.

It is returning to normal, but the focus is still on cost, each deal being done on a financial basis. He says SES has scale of its operations but also through the provision of customised long-term solutions. This could extend out to 10 years, looking at total demand and developing a structure with the customer that meets all their spare engine needs. It might also cover fleet transitions – A320ceo Family to neo, Boeing 737NG to MAX.

As for the future, interest rates and fuel prices are challenges as they are costs that should be passed on, along with the threat of recession. Perhaps the biggest threat is inflation, as it can have a direct effect on passenger sentiment and associated demand.

Experience Gained

For SES, Dillon credits several factors: the experience gained during the 2009/10 financial crisis; a healthy revenue stream; a resilient and innovative team of people; strong customer relationships; and a global customer presence.

Patrick Biebel, managing director of MTU Maintenance Lease Services, MTU’s Amsterdam-based leasing and asset management arm, says his company specializes in a wide range of narrowbody and widebody engines from the CF34 up to the GE90, primarily focusing on short-term leases (up to two years) to support maintenance events. He agrees that before the pandemic hit, the industry was under strain driven by current generation engines approaching their shop visit peaks and phase-in challenges of new engine equipment. This meant older aircraft were staying in service longer than expected.

When COVID hit, MTU Maintenance Lease Services relied on its established risk management strategy with an engine pool made up of three components: owned engines, long-term lease and short-term lease. This approach allowed for a quick response to the changes in demand driven by the ongoing pandemic situation. At the time, airlines were deferring maintenance and often, when faced with a shop visit that might require a multi-million-dollar investment, would swap engines from their parked fleet or opt for a lease engine, taking advantage of more favorable lease rates.

As the drivers of demand are evolving, the industry is facing new obstacles. The MRO supply chain is experiencing capacity shortages, while airlines now need to ramp up their operations quickly, but are faced with staffing shortages, deferred maintenance and a need for lease engines. He says engine lessors are positioned to help smooth out the ramp up – he reckons it may take about two years for the industry to fully recover.

The assets most unlikely to recover from COVID, he adds, are engines related to more niche aircraft, such as the A340 and A380, although these are not leasing markets served by MTU. In addition, earlier CFM56 and V2500 models also saw significant value pressure, especially for teardown assets. During uncertain times, many market players focused their maintenance activities on newer configuration engines with respective effect on used material consumption.

Avoiding Layoffs

In terms of MTU, the company not only avoided layoffs, but also continued with its €500 million ($497 million) investment program into its MRO network to expand capacity at all of its global MRO facilities. Together the company provides holistic approach to support customers with the availability of lease engines and offer alternative solutions to those navigating this COVID recovery period. Furthermore, for lessors and asset owners, MTU Maintenance Lease Services provides a platform to generate value from their under-utilized assets by including them into its lease pool under a managed lease structure, providing a constant revenue stream for the owners. At the end of life, the engine is dismantled and the USM is purchased by MTU to be consumed by one of its over 1,000 shop visit events per year.

Looking at the larger market, he has observed a growing need for aircraft lessors to get more hands on when it comes to engine maintenance activity. Between early returns, customer bankruptcy and deferred or defaulted maintenance reserve payments, the lessors find themselves with engines that are in a good enough condition to be remarketed. This creates a high demand for cost-efficient MRO solutions. He says MTU is ideally placed to help as it offers a wide range of such solutions, including module exchanges, tailored workscopes and green time engine exchanges.

Another sector accelerated by COVID is the P2F market, especially on the narrowbody side, where, he says, conversions are ramping up to more than 80 aircraft/year. Cargo operations typically differ from passenger operations, with many fewer cycles per year, reducing maintenance reserve payments with the respective impact on cash flow. From an investment perspective, often a half-life, high-thrust engine at the right price point is a preferable option. Situations like this are areas where MTU is working closely together with its customers to identify the best possible option, considering all parameters.

Given that airlines in recovery are now faced with rising costs, he says MTU continues to explore options to find cost-effective approaches for its customers. For example, leveraging the modular architecture of the CFM56 by utilizing engine pools to generate modules for exchanges or complete engine build-ups.

He points out that, to run this effectively, sophisticated configuration control is vital, along with understanding the performance implication of each module to ensure LLP limits can be reached.

Narrowbody/Regional Love

Oliver James, VP Commercial Trading at AerFin, says his company is involved in short term engine leasing for both narrowbody and regional aircraft types, predominantly the CF34-8, CFM56 and V2500. The first of these, the CF34-8, performed well through the pandemic, driven mainly by capacity from the U. S. domestic market, and many airlines with CRJ and Embraer series aircraft helped service the localised demand and proved to be an ideal low-cost substitute to fill some of those longer routes, typically served by the larger A320/737 aircraft.

The extended localized lockdowns seen across much of Europe throughout 2021 and into 2022 have meant a delayed recovery of CFM56-5B powered Airbus aircraft due to the higher consolidation of the global fleet being in that region. In contrast, the CFM56-7B, applicable to the 737NG, has seen a quicker recovery, with V2500 followed closely behind. He concurs that the strength of the US domestic market was a great help.

The cargo market has been the lifeline of the aviation industry during the pandemic, historically cargo made up around 12% of the sector’s total revenue; that percentage tripled in 2021 and AerFin expects to continue to see undersupply for some time.

He says the company took a risk managed approach through the pandemic and were selective with how it managed and deployed capital. Most of its focus remained on supporting asset owners through consignment programs, sale and lease back schemes and asset remarketing.

For now, he says, AerFin remains well positioned in the market with a healthy volume of equipment in its acquisition pipeline to support the next phase of growth for the business.

Substantial Recovery

Anthony Spaulding, executive vice president at Magellan Aviation Group, says the trading market has made a substantial recovery from the pandemic, with prices starting to rebound, so competition to acquire assets has increased. Magellan specializes in USM and leasing space for the CFM56, V2500, PW4000 and CF34 engine types.

Green time engines are still an important lever for the airlines to manage cash spent on MRO. For example, airlines are finding it difficult to find CFM56-5A engines with green time to defer or replace an engine due for a shop visit, On the other hand, there is an oversupply with the CFM56-5Bs engine type that is depressing lease rates which makes it favorable for airlines when they need a CFM56-5B.

Airlines with current technology fleets with an inhouse MRO function are looking at ways to keep the operation running smoothly to avoid SV spend and excessive turnaround times by purchasing engines with a relatively fresh SV. If they can purchase a replacement engine, park or sell the run-out engine, this alleviates unforeseen SV cost escalation and avoids operational disruptions due to excessive turnaround times for engines being repaired.

He comments that, thankfully, the days of an ‘all in’ rate have just about disappeared, that is, airlines only paid a cost per hour when they flew, a trend that started in early 2021 with aircraft lessors, as there was no revenue from parked aircraft. The traditional model of rentals and lease fees has returned, although the rates are a little soft but recovering – a CFM56-7B26 pre-pandemic was $65-70,000/month, it is now $45-50,000+ and climbing, while it is even lower for the CFM56-5B due to the oversupply.

He says the P2F market hasn’t yet helped the -5B rebound like the demand for the CFM56-7B has since there is an approximate 4:1 ratio in favor of the 737-800F over A321F conversions currently. In addition, the A321 also has an engine choice – there is a 70/30 split between IAE and CFM. The SV costs for the V2500 is higher than the CFM56-5B but the V2500 has the advantage of EGT retention. However, he thinks it likely that an A321 freighter will bulk out before it grosses out, which allows operators to derate a bit more and extend engine life.

It may be a similar acquisition strategy for the CFM56-5B powered A321s as happened with the 767 freighter feedstock, where everyone was trying to find CF6-powered aircraft for conversion due to lower SV costs compared to the PW4000. Additionally, as 737/A321 P2F feedstock acquisitions are being made, one of the issues buyers are finding and dealing with is aircraft that were returned during the pandemic tend to have one or more engines that is runout or due for an expensive SV. This is helping bolster values and demand for green time engines, especially for the CFM56-7B.

Labor Shortages Will Play

There is also the issue of extended turnaround times, narrowbody engine overhauls now being similar to those previously for widebody engines. Of course, this is because of labor shortages and supply chain issues, he makes the point that engine piece part repair shops are equally affected, adding that extensive training is required to operate the specialized machinery needed for turbine blades, for example. It also affects Magellan, as spares recovered from tear downs have to be repaired before they can be sold as USM. For the OEMs, he notes raw materials, such as precious metals that are/were sourced from Russia, could also become a problem as demand recovers for new build deliveries.

He too feels that it will take about two years, hopefully less, to recover but this depends on the labor market, as there are general shortages in every area of aviation. One way for the industry to recover from this current situation is to make a concentrated effort to reach out to young people to bring on a new generation that an aviation career will be positive career choice for professional growth with a well-paying salary.

On a more positive note, the spending on maintenance has definitely picked up in the aircraft and engine MRO space that are key customers, which is good news for Magellan and the industry as a whole.

The traditional paper trail associated with MRO repairs tends to be a long and complicated one, culminating in a blizzard of task cards that tell MRO technicians what to do and to record what they have done.

This is why the creation of electronic task cards has been a boon for the MRO industry. Not only are electronic task cards easy to access, read, and modify on the shop floor using workplace tablet computers, but the data they hold and capture can be easily stored and shared across the entire MRO enterprise. Among other things, electronic task cards can be used to track and document job progress, schedule sub-tasks, ensure that proper procedures have been followed through the use of automated checklists, record inspection signatures, and send data to the Billing Department when the work is done.

This is just some of electronic task cards’ positive impacts on the MRO industry and a glimpse at their potential to make this business more productive, efficient, and accountable. To gain an in-depth understanding of their benefits, Aviation Maintenance magazine spoke with top executives at three leading software companies; all of which incorporate electronic task cards into their end-to-end MRO documentation management platforms. These experts are Karl Steeves, CEO of TrustFlight (currently in a Proof of Concept phase); Saravanan Rajarajan, director of Aviation Consulting, Ramco Systems (already available); and Levi Schmidt, managing director of Customer Excellence at EmpowerMX (already available).

Saving Precious Time

No matter what business you’re in, time is money. This is doubly true with respect to the time spent on tasks that don’t earn income, such as filling out paperwork.

Unfortunately, the mission-critical nature of the aircraft repair industry means that MROs spend a lot of time on paperwork. In fact, “when we analyzed where MRO engineers’ typically spend their time, we found approximately 50% of this time was spent completing paperwork and various compliance activities rather than working on aircraft,” said TrustFlight’s Steeves. “For us, the opportunity associated with electronic task cards is to reduce this percentage as much as possible, freeing up engineers and mechanics to spend more time doing actual work on the aircraft.”

It’s not just record-keeping that consumes MROs’ precious hours. “Engineering and technical records departments also spend considerable effort whenever they deal with managing OEM technical documents and manuals,” said Ramco Systems Rajarajan. “This can be tasks like the induction of a new set of documents or manuals into their systems or managing revisions for their existing contents and manuals.”

If the incoming documents are PDFs, even more time can be lost converting them into a shareable interactive electronic format for work orders, unless the conversion can be handled automatically (as is the case with the Ramco Systems’ platform). “This is why pursuing a digital technical documentation program that uses electronic task cards has been proven to improve the operational efficiencies — not only within the engineering and technical records functions but across the downstream maintenance process,” Rajarajan said.

Using Advanced Tools to Improve Productivity

It may come as a surprise that electronic task cards are not a recent technological advance. In fact, “EmpowerMX has been providing electronic non-routine task cards for 20 years now,” said Schmidt.

However, electronic routine task cards are a new invention, he noted. “There has been a standard recently established — S1000D — which would allow broader adoption of electronic task cards by closing the gap for routine task cards in terms of their use in the workplace,” said Schmidt. “However, S1000D has a rigid framework that must be respected for compliance reasons. This makes S1000D somewhat difficult to adopt so that MROs can go 100% paperless.”

In response to S1000D’s constraints, EmpowerMX has created its own compliant routine task card application called eTaskCard. “With EmpowerMX eTaskCard, MROs can be 100% paperless,” he told Aviation Maintenance. “EmpowerMX achieves this by using the existing PDF task cards that every airline and MRO already uses, and then enables interactive functionality to sign off those task cards in the EmpowerMX application.”

In both instances, advanced software tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) monitor the progress of electronic task cards and check for procedural compliance at every step. “AI performs two functions that help the technician maximize their productivity,” said Schmidt. “The first is that the AI error proofreads the job card: This means a block cannot be missed. A block cannot be unreadable. A stamp cannot be too light or too dark, and a non RII (Required Inspection Items) inspector cannot sign an RII required block. The time savings achieved by eliminating error corrections alone increases productivity.”

The second way that AI increases technicians’ productivity through electronic task cards is by eliminating the need for them to go back and forth to a desktop computer to look up manuals. “EmpowerMX eTaskCard automatically converts manual references for sub-tasks into clickable hyperlinks that show up on the electronic task card screen,” Schmidt explained. “When the technician gets to a step with a hyperlink, they just click on the link and read the sub-task from within the manual reference, all without leaving their task card app.”

Similarly, an AI-enabled electronic task card can simplify the ordering of parts during a job. “When our EmpowerMX Materials Module is combined with the EmpowerMX eTaskCard, the technician can simply hyperlink over to the IPC (IIlustrated Parts Catalogue), copy the part number, paste the need into their electronic task card, and order their parts,” he said. “Since it’s all being done by this system, there’s no need to record the part information in the electronic task card. That’s all done in the background.”

Streamlining the Workflow

The MRO workflow is a complicated, often cumbersome process, due to the interplay of customer, compliance, and technical concerns that have to be documented and attended to. The adoption of electronic task cards can go a long way to streamlining this process, by making it faster and easier to execute while at the same time improving transparency and data sharing for all.

A case in point: “Electronic task cards can provide a way for engineers and mechanics to have direct access to work instructions generated by a Maintenance and Engineering (M&E) system alongside all supporting publication excerpts such as Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM) procedures,” said Steeves. “Once completed in the digital system, task card compliance data could be automatically fed into the M&E system to complete a task. Today, this is a manual process completed by technical records teams that takes a lot of time.”

It helps if this functionality is purpose-built into the system. For example, “EmpowerMX supports digital non-routine task cards as a matter of course,” said Schmidt. “By enabling eTaskCards on that pre-existing framework, the electronic task cards are automatically integrated into an already optimized workflow without having to take on any additional integrations or processes.”

Meanwhile, when it comes to precisely streamlining the integration of third-party task cards into an MRO data/task management system, “the first step in the process is to seamlessly ingest and process SGML/XML based documents complying to ISPEC 2200 and S1000D standards from the OEMs,” Rajarajan said. “The ingested task cards are then customized by the MRO through user-friendly screens to add additional texts, warnings, tables, formulas and graphics to the MRO’s own electronic task cards. Then, whenever the technician finishes the job, the complete task card with OEM and customized instructions are available on the MRO’s Point of Work internal website for reference and sign off.”

Improving Maintenance Tracking

Consistently executed, properly documented aircraft maintenance is a must for MROs and their aviation customers. This is why proper maintenance tracking is more essential than ever.

Electronic task cards satisfy this need nicely, improving both the accuracy and completeness of maintenance tracking. In fact, “electronic task cards can help improve maintenance tracking in several ways,” said Schmidt. In this system, no task cards can be lost since they are digital, and no pages can be scanned incorrectly when being recorded into the work order. “No steps can be missed when the AI requires them to be signed for, while parts that are ordered and used for a task do not get forgotten or incorrectly transcribed,” he explained. “All told, the use of electronic task cards is the most optimal approach to maintenance tracking, making it much more accurate and reliable. From a centralized production control booth, a team can see the status of any job throughout the facility, right down to the last step completed.”

On a larger scale, analysis of the data within the electronic task card system can be used as the basis for process improvement. “And if a technician notices something about the task or the data associated with the task, they can flag for the proper support at that moment,” Schmidt noted.

Electronic task card systems can also aid in tracking the completion of a scheduled aircraft maintenance check in progress, and in keeping an MRO’s maintenance forecasts up to date and correct in their M&E system.

“Tracking progress of a check can be difficult as information can’t be gathered until tasks are uploaded into the M&E system by tech records teams,” said Steeves. “Some rudimentary ways are used today including measuring the thickness of piles of completed and still-to-do task cards! In contrast, electronic task cards support real-time status updates on check progress.”

The same limitations of manual task card systems apply to maintenance forecasts and M&E system accuracy. “Audit and completion of a maintenance check cannot be finished until all task cards are uploaded and processed by records teams,” Steeves said. “When this is a manual process, there is often a delay along with errors in the data uploaded to the M&E system, leading to compliance and safety risks. Electronic task cards remedy this problem by providing validation at the point of data entry by the engineer/mechanic as well as updating the M&E system in real-time.”

Reducing Downtime, Improving Turnaround Time

Less downtime and faster turnaround time (TAT) was a priority for MRO customers – particularly airlines! – before COVID-19. In the pandemic’s wake, achieving both of these goals is more important than ever.

By making the MRO process more integrated, coordinated, faster and far less vulnerable to human errors, electronic task cards can help MROs hit both of these marks. Sometimes the improvements provided by electronic task cards are subtle but significant. “For instance, the system could highlight conflicts where tooling or access may be needed by multiple engineers,” said Steeves. By flagging these conflicts before they actually occur, electronic task card systems allow MROs to better plan their jobs, including the complex, more demanding major checks of commercial aircraft.

Taking a Big Picture view of the problem, Schmidt observed that, “Downtime/TAT is the byproduct of a technician’s ability to perform. When a technician doesn’t need to take time making corrections, or recording part number information, or going back and forth to the computer station, they are building efficiencies,” he said. Moving to an electronic task card system delivers all of these benefits, and thus less downtime/faster TAT.

“Time savings are also found when they don’t need to search for a job card because it now exists in cyberspace and can be accessed from anywhere,” Schmidt added. “The leads don’t need to organize and manage 2,000 job cards on a board. They don’t need to track those job cards down and hand them out or request a reprint because they can’t be located.”

Making MROs Leaner

The push to Lean process management is a top priority for profit-minded businesses, and MROs are no exception. Reducing costs while improving operational efficiencies boost the bottom line, and help MROs do better even in the toughest of economic times – like the last three years.

“Electronic task cards absolutely assist in the Lean process by reducing unnecessary movement,” said Schmidt. “For every hyperlinked sub-task, it’s a skipped trip to the computer station. For every part lookup and ordering, it’s a skipped trip to the computer station.”

“Paper task cards today record the hours to complete as filled in by the engineer/mechanic, which takes time and is generally not that reliable,” Steeves said. “Electronic task cards do better on both points, which aligns with the Lean process.”

“Electronic task cards enable mechanics to access technical documentation through mobile devices,” added Rajarajan. “This reduces considerable walk time by maintainers, which is consistent with Lean management principles. As electronic task cards also provide the capability for digital sign offs, the need to access paper documents for DFP are eliminated, thereby improving the task closure rate.”

That’s not all: “Shops and support teams also benefit by not having to transport paper task cards back and forth from the maintenance bay,” said Schmidt. “Planners don’t have to produce the cards and transport them to the bay. Those cards don’t then need to be organized for the leads to re-organize on a shift-by-shift basis. Production controllers don’t need to retrieve those cards from filing, scanning, and shipping.”

The takeaway: Electronic task cards and Lean management principles are a natural fit.

The Bottom Line

This article has gone into a great deal of detail to demonstrate one simple point: Electronic task cards are good for MROs and their clients.

It is safe to say that this point has been proven.

As a member of the “Greatest Generation,” my father served his country in the U.S. Army Air Corps during the latter half of World War II. Dad was a navigator in the Boeing B-17 bomber (see Photo 1, next page). Of the 12,731 B-17s that were produced, over a third of them — 4,735 — were lost during combat missions. Lucky for me, he survived the war, moved back to his hometown of Beaver, Pennsylvania, became an optometrist, met my mom and raised three boys. I was his youngest and I was enthralled with his aviation adventures. The B-17 became my favorite airplane.

With a cruise speed of 182 mph, a range of 2,000 miles, and a service ceiling of 35,000 feet, the B-17 could fly faster, farther and higher than any comparable aircraft of its day. Aptly named the “Flying Fortress,” the B-17’s resilient design gained a reputation for taking a beating and still bringing its crew home alive. However, the advent of the jet age made the Fortress obsolete. After the war, most B-17s were cut up for scrap, used for research or target drones, or sold on the surplus market. As of October 1, 2019, there were only ten B-17s left in the U.S. that were airworthy. One of them was the “Nine-O-Nine” (see Photo 2 previous page).

The Nine-O-Nine first came to my attention more than three decades ago, Soon after graduating as an aeronautical engineer in 1987, I was watching the evening news which aired video of a B-17 — the Nine-O-Nine — at an airshow landing at the Beaver County Airport near my hometown. The bomber veered off the runway and down into a ravine while fighting a stiff crosswind. My heart sank. Fortunately, none of the 12 people on board were killed, and there was no fire. The good people of Beaver County volunteered to drag the airplane out of the ravine and rebuild it at the airport.

It took a few years, but the repair was finally completed in February 1991. The public was invited to the airport to watch the Nine-O-Nine start up its engines. I was an air safety investigator for Cessna in Wichita, Kansas, at that time, but I flew back to Pennsylvania to share the event with Dad. I was so proud of him, my hometown and the resurrection of the greatest airplane of all time. I captured the event with my Kodak camera (see Photo 3 above). I treasure that photo, especially since my father died two years later from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Fast forward 27 years, to October 2, 2019. I had recently retired from the FAA and was surfing the web when I read the news that the Nine-O-Nine had crashed again. This time, the accident occurred at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut. While landing on runway 6, the Nine-O-Nine struck approach lights, veered off the right side of the runway, and collided with a deicing fluid tank. Both pilots and five passengers were killed. The crew chief and four other passengers sustained serious injuries. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postcrash fire (Photos 4, previous page and 5 at left).

My heart sank again. There would be no rebuilding of the famed B-17 this time. How could have this happened to such a special and revered airplane?

The Investigation

The NTSB launched a go-team to Hartford to investigate the accident, led by Bob Gretz, one of the best investigators I know (see Photo 6, lower left). The team was briefed that the vintage bomber was being operated by the non-profit Collings Foundation as a Part 91 “Living History Flight Experience” (LHFE) sightseeing flight to allow the public to experience the significance and history of the bomber.

The captain was 75-year-old Ernest “Mac” McCauley. He held a commercial pilot certificate and a type rating for the B-17. He also held a valid FAA medical certificate and reported 14,500 hours of flight time, of which nearly half was logged in the Flying Fortress. He was the most experienced living B-17 pilot in the world. In addition, he held a mechanic certificate with airframe and powerplant ratings.

McCauley resided in Arizona, but was a full-time volunteer pilot and traveled with the B-17 wherever it went. He was also the director of maintenance for the Collings Foundation. As the recovered aircraft logbooks revealed, he would sign off the daily checks and any routine or non-routine maintenance that occurred during the course of flying. In an interview with the NTSB, the surviving crew chief explained that the Nine-O-Nine was the center of McCauley’s life. “I mean, he lived in that thing; cleaned it, worked on it, flew it,” he explained.

During the accident flight, the Nine-O-Nine had flown about eight miles after takeoff and reached an altitude of 800 feet when McCauley reported a problem and requested an immediate landing. After the air traffic controller asked why, McCauley replied that the airplane had a “rough mag[neto]” on the No. 4 engine. The veteran pilot shut down the no. 4 engine and feathered the propeller.

In order to balance the loss of thrust on the outboard engine of the right wing, McCauley accelerated the No. 3 inboard engine to compensate — but he was likely unaware that the no. 3 engine was also in trouble. More about that later.

When the airplane was about 400 feet above the ground, it was on a midfield right downwind leg for runway 6. Witness video showed that the landing gear had already been extended by that time, even though the airplane still had over two miles to fly in the traffic pattern before reaching the runway. Unfortunately, a much closer runway had been NOTAMed closed; the holes in the Swiss cheese were lining up to conspire against the Nine-O-Nine.

Recorded ADS-B data (see Photo 7, upper right) revealed that during the return to the airport, McCauley flew the pattern at an airspeed of 100 mph far, far below the 120 mph required to minimize the loss of altitude. The NTSB determined that the airplane was unable to maintain altitude at the lower airspeeds because the pilot could apply only a limited amount of power to the left-wing engines while simultaneously trimming the asymmetric thrust with the available rudder authority. If McCauley had lowered the airplane’s nose to maintain airspeed, and kept the landing gear retracted until landing on the runway was assured, the NTSB’s calculations showed that the Nine-O-Nine would have overflown the approach lights and touched down beyond the runway threshold.

Inadequate Maintenance

In addition to the McCauley’s improper actions piloting the Nine-O-Nine, his lack of action with maintenance before the flight was also examined. As the Collings Foundation’s director of maintenance, he was responsible for performing the Nine-O-Nine’s maintenance while it was on tour.

Vintage aircraft require a significant amount of care and feeding. Structure and components are decades old. In fact, for each hour a B-17 spends in the air, ten hours are spent on the ground in maintenance. An engine overhaul can cost $40,000, and required wing-spar inspections and repairs can cost $100,000.

The Nine-O-Nine was equipped with four Wright R-1820-97 Cyclone radial engines, each of which had nine massive cylinders, or “jugs” as the mechanics of the day would call them. The continuous airworthiness program for the B-17G consists of four inspections conducted at a 25-hour interval. Inspections one through four are performed sequentially each 25 flight hours and then repeated.

Examination by investigators of the Nos. 3 and 4 engines – both located on the right wing of the airplane – revealed maintenance issues that were not adequately addressed by McCauley or his team.

For example, the No. 3 engine’s 25-hour inspection — which occurred less than one month before the accident — required that the spark plugs be cleaned, inspected, tested, or replaced with new plugs, and the gap between the electrodes should have been checked. However, the spark plugs were worn with gaps between the electrodes that were beyond the manufacturer’s specifications. The electrodes were too close together, which caused them to spark excessively. Most of the nine piston heads displayed white coloration that were consistent with detonation rather than normal combustion, with the no. 4 cylinder exhibiting the evidence of significant detonation (see Photo 8, previous page). Detonation in a piston engine occurs when the fuel-air mixture in the cylinder explodes prematurely instead of being ignited by spark plugs and burning evenly and smoothly, as occurs with normal combustion. Detonation can damage pistons and cause a loss of power.

The No. 4 engine (see Photo 9, previous page) had its 25-hour inspection nine days before the accident, but the NTSB’s teardown of that engine found a different problem. The engine’s left magneto P-lead — the electrical connection between a magneto and the cockpit ignition switches – was partially pulled out of the magneto housing, and the grounding tab was in contact with the housing. A single strand of safety wire was observed around the retaining nut (see Photo 10 page 52). A functional test of the magneto showed that the contact between the grounding tab and the housing resulted in the magneto being shorted to ground and unable to function. The right magneto’s P-lead was also partially engaged in its fitting, and the grounding tab did not contact the magneto housing. Perhaps this damage was due to impact, but not likely, said the NTSB. Additionally, the right magneto’s gap between the points was 0.004 inch, which was less than the minimum gap (0.008 to 0.010 inch) that the manufacturer required (see Photo 11 page 52). When the magneto was tested, the ignition leads for the no. 8 cylinder did not spark; the ignition leads for the other eight cylinders did produce sparks, but they were weak and intermittent. These discrepancies likely added to the loss of power on the No. 4 engine.

Probable Cause and Lessons Learned

The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the accident was the pilot’s failure to properly manage the airplane’s configuration and airspeed after he shut down the No. 4 engine following its partial loss of power during the initial climb. However, the Board also stated that “the pilot/maintenance director’s inadequate maintenance” contributed to the accident by causing the partial loss of engine power to the Nos. 3 and 4 engines.

As a result of this investigation, and others involving similar aircraft and operations, the NTSB issued a formal safety recommendation to the FAA to “develop national safety standards, or equivalent regulations, for revenue passenger-carrying operations that are currently conducted under Part 91, including … flights conducted in …living history flight experience and other vintage aircraft flights.” The NTSB stated that standards or regulations should include “operationally specific maintenance” requirements.

For its part, the FAA issued Notice N 8900.568 to provide FSDO inspectors with increased oversight procedures for LHFE operators. The notice indicated that the B-17 accident “revealed the need to bolster surveillance and oversight of LHFE exemption holders.” The notice also instructed inspectors to perform an audit of all LHFE operators within their geographic jurisdiction.

The day the Nine-O-Nine died three years ago brought back shades of the sadness I felt the day my father died 30 years ago. Dad remains enshrined in my memory, as does the legendary airplane type that he once guided during a critical time in our nation. With only nine airworthy B-17s left, and the steady decrease of the population of WWII vintage airplanes of all types, the operators of these magnificent machines must ensure that meticulous maintenance is performed on them to preserve our nation’s history.

Jeff Guzzetti is the president of Guzzetti Aviation Risk Discovery (GuARD), an aviation safety consulting firm following a 35-year career with the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and other agencies. During his 18 years at NTSB, Guzzetti was a field investigator, “go-team” engineer and Deputy Director. He then served as an Assistant Inspector General at the Dept. of Transportation and testified before Congress regarding aviation safety audits. In 2014, Guzzetti served as the Director of FAA’s Accident Investigation Division in Washington, D. C. until his retirement in 2019. Guzzetti graduated from Embry-Riddle University with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, and he is a commercial-rated pilot with multi-engine instrument ratings in airplanes, seaplanes and gliders.

Predictive engine maintenance harnesses the power of engine sensor data, digital monitoring/transmission tools, artificial intelligence-enabled big data analysis, and modern digital modeling techniques such as “digital twins” (creating virtual versions of engines whose “operational lifespans” mirror their physical counterparts) to predict maintenance issues before they occur.

By using this predictive approach, engine MROs can address issues for their aviation customers before they become serious, expensive, and likely to cause Aircraft on Ground situations. PEM also allows aircraft owners/operators to base some of their maintenance cycles on actual needs rather than fixed time periods. In this way, less money is spent on maintenance, without compromising safety or aircraft availability.

These reasons explain why PEM is proving to be a popular option for aircraft owners/operators. To get a sense of what kind of PEM solutions are available today, trends in PEM evolution, and how this approach is catching on, Aviation Maintenance magazine spoke with three “PEM players.” They are Rik van Lieshout, digital products and services manager for Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance; Ville Santaniemi, customer success manager and partner with QOCO Systems Ltd.; and Dr. Michael Bartelt, director of industrial engineering at MTU Maintenance.

What They Have to Offer

To put their expertise into context, Aviation Maintenance asked each company about its role in the PEM marketplace.

Since 2016, AFI KLM E&M has included predictive engine maintenance as part of its PROGNOS predictive maintenance suite, which also handles “health monitoring” for aircraft. “Based on our extensive knowledge of operations and data generated by aircraft engines, AFI KLM E&M’s engineering teams have developed algorithms to provide early warning of engine failures (or of their components) before they occur, and to provide corroborating data to support the Maintenance Center in assessing engine remaining health in order to extend engine Time-on-Wing,” said van Lieshout.

For the record, AFI KLM E&M uses its own algorithms to drive its PEM application PROGNOS for Engine. PROGNOS for Engine is an integral part of the PROGNOS predictive maintenance suite, which also includes PROGNOS for Aircraft, PROGNOS for APU and PROGNOS for Inventory.

MTU Maintenance is also harnessing digital technology to support its PEM services. “We are working towards the point where developments could be called ‘prescriptive’ in that data gathered from operations — such as operational environments, derate, and engine performance — is getting connected in such a way that we are able to forecast remaining on-wing time and optimal engine and module removal points,” Bartelt said. “For that purpose we use our proprietary Engine Trend Monitoring (ETM) called WebETM 3.0, which we have been continuously enhancing for over 15 years.”

MTU Maintenance’s WebETM 3.0 is designed to serve as a full-scale performance analysis tool. In addition to its continuous monitoring of all relevant engine parameters (including specific fuel consumption, rotor speeds, vibrations, oil pressures and temperatures), this tool has a built-in alarm function that alerts users whenever engine conditions are about to exceed critical parameters. WebETM 3.0 is also designed to predict performance degradation on an engine module level.

When taken as a whole, these PEM capabilities allow MTU Maintenance “to create customer-specific workscopes,” said Bartelt. “Combining WebETM 3.0 with other digital services, like our own fleet management tool CORTEX, also allows for better assessment and prediction of material consumption.”

AI-enabled CORTEX allows MTU to generate engine fleet management scenarios and workscopes for its customers that are customized, relevant and proactive. “With CORTEX, we provide optimized support by calculating a multitude of scenarios that can be immediately and endlessly adapted to financial, technical, operational, and market considerations as they change — which we are experiencing regularly at this time,” he said. “Furthermore, we have developed our own scrap rate prediction tools. Based on engine and maintenance data, such as engine operations, severity, material data of parts, and modification status of parts, our AI can predict default probabilities of high-cost material. This information also helps us design individualized maintenance strategies for our customers.”

Meanwhile, QOCO Systems plays a different role in PEM. Rather than do engine monitoring and repairs itself, QOCO Systems provides the data pathways to enable “the leading players in the market to seamlessly share data needed for PEM,” said Santaniemi. “By collaborating and sharing data, airlines and OEMs can jointly improve the utilization of the assets for the benefit of both parties. For aircraft engines, this means extended time on-wing, less unscheduled maintenance, and longer maintenance intervals, leading to improved cost and resource efficiency and streamlined operations at the airline.”

To be specific, QOCO Systems provides the data exchange platform — EngineData.io — that enables bidirectional maintenance and engineering data flows between operators and OEMs/ analytics service providers. “EngineData.io is a key element of our customers’ PEM solutions in making the real-time digital twins of their assets possible,” he said.

PEM Trends

Having established what roles these companies play in the PEM marketplace, Aviation Maintenance asked what specific trends are influencing the development and availability of PEM to aircraft operators.

For AFI KLM E&M’s van Lieshout, the two trends making a difference are the ones that make PEM possible, namely the ability of engines to generate data and the progress in artificial intelligence in analyzing this data and drawing conclusions, predictions, and recommendations based on it. “The latest generation of engines allow these developments,” he said. “However, it is the engineering expertise linked to the knowledge of the operations that allows the interpretation of these data and information flows.”

According to QOCO Systems’ Santaniemi, the ever-increasing range, detail and selection of data being generated by today’s engines are driving a trend toward ever-improving PEM capabilities, accuracy, and results. “The more data available to learn from, the more accurate the predictive maintenance solutions are,” he said. “As a result, PEM systems developed by OEMs and analytics service providers will far outshine those developed by individual airlines themselves. To maximize results, data sharing between airlines and PEM service providers is essential.”

One more trend is driving PEM performance improvements, namely the ongoing evolution in data sampling technologies and the AI-enabled software to analyze their results.

“We see a trend towards working with continuous data at higher sampling rates in order to cover critical operational conditions and maneuvers,” said MTU’s Bartelt. “Going forward, we will see an increase in the amount of data available, such as higher sampling rates, more collected data points, and so forth.”

In saying this, Bartelt noted that further progress will be governed by how much sampling and data transmission technology improves going forward. “In that same vein, the development of new AI methods to better evaluate operational data and predict engine conditions will play an important role,” he said. “Ultimately, we will see a move from predictive maintenance towards prescriptive maintenance, where recommendations for action are provided automatically.”

PEM’s Payoffs

The real value of PEM is its promise to provide customers with proactive engine maintenance that is tailored to each engine’s unique needs, on an as-needed basis that minimizes time in the shop while maximizing aircraft availability. And let’s not forget money/time saved through avoiding unneeded maintenance and AOG situations, all of which are major points in PEM’s favor.

So is PEM paying off on its promise to aircraft owners/operators? According to the experts interviewed for this article, the answer is a resounding yes.

“When it comes to predictive maintenance, it is important to maximize time on wing, but also to prevent costly operations by anticipating breakdowns before they occur,” said van Lieshout. “Removal before failure avoids costly shop visits but also prevents AOG situations that generate multiple costs. These include maintenance intervention and temporary unavailability of the total asset — the aircraft — plus compensation to passengers and a lower brand reputation.”

“Time on wing for engines may even double thanks to the advanced digital services that are enabled through maintenance and engineering data exchanges,” added Santaniemi.

Over the 15 years that it has offered its proprietary ETM to engine clients, MTU Maintenance has seen a number of positive payoffs from this technology in terms of engine availability, reliability and servicing costs. The big one is alerting customers any time the monitoring data indicates something amiss: “We have an ETM support team that evaluates and communicates the technical recommendations to our customers on a daily basis,” said Bartelt. “These recommendations cover line maintenance and shop visit actions to avoid additional damages or performance losses. As a result, this creates savings and shorter turn times.”

“We combine ETM with our engineering and workscope expertise to optimize solutions for customers,” he added. “Essentially, it is always a holistic and highly customized process, where failure cases can be identified, identification and confirmation can happen earlier, and troubleshooting efforts can be reduced, leading to higher engine reliability and time on wing.”

PEM’s Impact on the Industry

PEM’s usefulness to aircraft owners/operators is clear. But what does the PEM model mean to MROs and supporting companies such as AFI KLM E&M, MTU Maintenance and QOCO Systems? What is PEM’s impact on their businesses, and the aviation maintenance industry as a whole?

The answer: PEM is proving to be good for business. “QOCO’s data exchange service is already enabling PEM for more than 10 airlines and about 200 aircraft, and we have ongoing projects for doubling these figures in the next year,” said Santaniemi. “We see that there is definitely a place for us to grow and bring the leading aviation industry players together to jointly develop win-win-win solutions for the industry.”

PEM is also helping MTU run its business better by supporting targeted shop visit planning and preparation. “In addition to fleet staggering, the information is used for strategic material planning,” Bartelt said. “At the same time, by offering these continually improved upon services to our customers, it is possible to increase their engine reliability and optimize shop visits staggering and cost across their engines’ lifecycles.”

What’s Coming Next

PEM benefits everyone in the aviation industry, from aircraft owners/operators to passengers and others who need reliable air travel, plus the OEMs, MROs and related companies that keep them all flying.

Going forward, “predictive maintenance, whether for engines or other aircraft components, will gradually evolve with new developments and innovations,” said van Lieshout. “Meanwhile, predictive maintenance is making a major contribution to a more sustainable aviation industry. This is why our PROGNOS predictive maintenance suite has been awarded the right to use the Solar Impulse label.” (This label is provided by the Solar Impulse Foundation, which has identified 1000-plus clean and profitable solutions on the market today.)

PROGNOS’ environmental benefits include reduced flight cancellations that would otherwise result in extra flights to recover grounded passengers, and cutting the number of Quick Return Flights (return of the aircraft to its departure airport) on technical alerts, which requires fuel to be dumped prior to landing. “It also optimizes overall aircraft fuel consumption by monitoring the status of equipment more precisely,” van Lieshout said.

The technology behind PEM can be extended to other parts of the aviation industry, noted Santaniemi. “We see that by enabling efficient data sharing, there are huge opportunities for many additional services that will eventually drive maintenance costs down,” he explained. “By sharing data, parties that are in the best position to offer services can do so for the benefit of the whole industry.”

“Big data is expected to transform the industry by enabling proactive analysis, as opposed to the reactive analysis seen up to this point,” agreed Bartelt. “There is certainly a lot of potential in digitalization, but also a lot of work and analysis that still needs to be done. Integration of multiple data sources will be key. We expect this to be a continual process over the coming years.”

Faced with these possibilities, the three companies are making plans to capitalize on the PEM/predictive maintenance trend.

“AFI KLM E&M’s main focus is to create value for its 200 airline customers by maximizing fleet availability and asset value,” van Lieshout said. “Future developments will take advantage of progress in terms of AI and big data via new algorithms for more transparency, access to more and more targeted information, and thus cooperation focused on value-added actions.”

“QOCO Systems is constantly improving and extending the EngineData.io platform to support wider maintenance and engineering data scope and to provide additional services for all parties involved,” said Santaniemi. “These include continuous verification and validation of data quality, extended use of common data models/standards.”

At MTU Maintenance, “we believe the next technology advancements in the MRO business will be driven by digitalization, and that is where the greatest development will take place across the industry,” Bartelt said. “To make this happen, we’re working towards full data integration throughout the entire product lifecycle and as a result, improving the predictability of engines. It is our aim to enable ETM to provide technical guidance to our customers with maintenance decisions. This is a development area and will be our focus for the next few years.”

All told, the data, technology and AI-enabled software that are driving PEM today will drive the entire aviation industry in the years to come. In fact, predictive maintenance will likely define how aircraft are designed, operated and serviced in all aspects, making AOG situations an unusual oddity rather than common occurrences. One can only hope.

One aviation sector to have reaped benefits from the COVID-19 pandemic has been the freight business. The initial flurry came from rapidly delivering urgently needed personal protection equipment and medicine, demands that were met by empty passenger aircraft flying belly cargo and then by various means of securing cargo in the cabin.

It then became clear that the already increasing amount of e-commerce was skyrocketing as people in lockdown became ever more used to ordering online. As the residual values of all those grounded airliners slowly ticked down, opportunities arose for freighter conversions on much younger aircraft than the traditional 20-year old veteran.

However, there is still a need for more freighters — IATA reported that, while capacity in February this year was 12.5% above February 2021 (8.9% for international operations) and above pre-COVID-19 levels, it still remains 5.6% below February 2019 levels.

AEI

Robert Convey, senior vice president – sales & marketing at Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. (AEI), reckons increased e-commerce demand has brought forward the market by about five years. The problem in the narrowbody sector is a lack of feedstock. His company specializes in the Boeing 737. He says all the 737-300/400 Classics that have been converted are in service and not changing hands, while there is very little feedstock left. That leaves the 737-800, for which there is a huge pool of aircraft and huge demand.

In 2019, AEI had received its STC and were working on two aircraft for GECAS and waiting for a third to arrive, while Boeing had had its STC for about a year and was doing just a handful of conversions. Feedstock was scarce because the aircraft were worth about $20 million and passenger demand was high. Once COVID-19 hit in March 2020, the passenger market dried up, with aircraft grounded and values starting to drop. As a result, the market for the 737-800 started picking up in May 2020 and AEI is booked out for around the next two years. It had already established a network of conversion partners and now has 10 dedicated -800 lines producing over 30 aircraft a year at five facilities (Commercial Jet Inc at Miami International Airport and Dothan, AL; HAECO Xiamen in China; KF Aerospace in Kelowna, Canada; and Taikoo (Shandong) Aircraft Engineering Company (STAECO) in China).

Until the summer of 2021, feedstock remained plentiful but then started tightening as more aircraft returned to passenger service and residual values climbed. Currently, prices are around $12 million but older aircraft are once again being converted. He expects this trend to continue for some time.

He adds that the aircraft that have been ordered over the last two years have not come from leasing companies disposing of assets, rather that companies like Aero Capital Solutions (ACS), BlackRock, GA Telesis and Macquarie AirFinance saw an opportunity to get into the project at an early stage craft using aircraft already in their inventory or bought on spec in the open market.

The U. S. and Europe are important markets, with the U. S. leading on the 737-800 as there is a significant fleet of 737-400s already operating in Europe. China is a small player, perhaps less than ten aircraft a year, as are Central and South America. Most of the customers are operating services on behalf of major shippers such as DHL.

A unique aspect of the AEI STC, developed at customer request, is that the belly holds have been converted to Class E compartments, with detection and depressurisation to combat fire. This enabled the AEI conversion to be ETOPS 180 approved and is currently the only conversion provider with this approval. It was used with immediate effect by Ethiopian Airlines, which used the aircraft on services across the Indian Ocean, although it also important given the lack of diversionary airports in much of Africa. Convey suggests Alaska and Hawai’i as other good examples where ETOPS can be used.

He says there is a balance to be struck on the levels of investment to be made in infrastructure. With Boeing charging ahead on its own 737-800 programme, he thinks there is too much capacity. With 80 aircraft to be converted by the industry in 2022 and an estimated 100 in 2023, he believes there will be a leveling off of demand starting in 2024.

While the focus is very much on the 737-800, the company also has its legacy conversions – the Bombardier CRJ 200, Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-400 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 – all of which are ticking over, with five lines. Aeronaves TSM in Mexico has six CRJ on order that will allow a line to run until the end of 2023. The last MD-88 order was in March 2021 for six aircraft for USA Jet Airlines (USA JET) and he says there is an engine corrosion AD that is making customers a little wary of adding to their fleets until that is resolved. While there is strong demand for the 737-400, there is simply no feedstock.

As a result, he expects the legacy products to fade away in a few years’ time. That would leave just the 737-800, so there are initial plans to look at another aircraft model to avoid dependence on a single type.

Boeing

According to Boeing’s most recent Commercial Market Outlook, we anticipate the global freighter fleet (production and conversions) will grow more than 70% from 2019, amounting to 2,610 new freighter deliveries in the next two decades. Of these, 890 will be production freighters and the remaining 1,720 will be converted freighters.

Specifically for freighter conversions, it is forecasting demand for 1,720 converted freighters over the next 20 years to replace aging freighters and accommodate future growth. This includes 1,200 narrowbody conversions and 520 widebody conversions.

It has 13 active conversion lines for the 737-800BCF. In China there is Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services (2), Taikoo (Shandong) Aircraft Engineering (STAECO) in Jinan (6) and GAMECO Guangzhou (3), plus single lines at COOPESA in Costa Rica (1) and at Boeing’s London Gatwick MRO facility in the United Kingdom.

Although the first COOPESA line opened only recently, it is already planned to add another, along with another line STAECO and two more at KF Aerospace in Canada. However, the company does not reveal production rates.

The first aircraft has just been inducted into the Gatwick facility. This will be delivered to Icelease, a Reykjavik-based leasing company by ASL Aviation Holdings (ASL). At the end of March, the company added 10 firm orders and 10 purchase rights for the 737-800BCF, taking its total orders and commitments to 40 aircraft. Some of the aircraft will also be converted at STAECO. Meanwhile, Texel Air in Bahrain, which accepted its first aircraft in January this year, has just added a further two.

At the end of April, STAECO completed its 50th conversion. The first aircraft for ICBC Leasing, it was delivered to Ethiopian Cargo. So far, a total of 75 aircraft have been converted globally.

For the 767-300BCF, it has three active conversion lines at ST Engineering in Singapore and one at GAMECO in Guangzhou, with another to be added at GAMECO and one at ST Engineering in Guangzhou.

The most recent transaction was in March, when ATSG announced that its leasing subsidiary Cargo Aircraft Management had placed a second order with Boeing for the conversion of four CAM-owned 767-300 aircraft, with an options for a further four. The conversions are scheduled to begin in late 2023.

EFW

Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) has been a long-term player in the conversion market, dating back to 1996, since when it has produced over 200 Airbus A300 and A310 freighters. Now jointly owned by Airbus and ST Engineering, it is currently involved in A320, A321 and A330 P2F programs, with conversion sites in Dresden, Germany, Singapore and VT SAA in San Antonio, TX. This year, ST Engineering will open a new facility in Shanghai, China, while VT MAE in Mobile, AL, will join the program. It holds the STCs for all conversion programs.

Dresden is dedicated to the A330P2F, with six lines, while Singapore is focusing on the single aisle models. China and the U. S. will each have two lines, one for A320/321 and one for A330. The company says that, despite the recovery in passenger traffic, there is sufficient and suitable feedstock available for the three types.

By April, it had converted five A330-200P2F and 11 A330-300P2F, which have been in service since 2017, and seven A321P2F, which entered service in 2020. In March, the A320P2F received EASA STC approval. The prototype A320P2F is owned by the aviation leasing arm of ST Engineering and it will be the first of five to be leased to Vaayu Group. Delivery is expected in 2Q22 on sub-lease to Astral Aviation, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

In March, it signed a major deal with ATSG for 29 A330P2F. The conversions will run from mid-2023 through 2027, mainly at EFW’s facility in Dresden, Germany, but also in Shanghai and Mobile.

Mike Berger, CCO of ATSG, said: “The A330-300 passenger-to-freighter conversion is a natural next step for ATSG as it is an excellent complement to the Boeing 767-300 medium wide-body freighter, which has long been the freighter of choice for the e-commerce air cargo market. The customer response to the news that we will have A330-300 freighters available for lease has been exceptionally strong, and we already have customer deposits toward future leases for half of these 29 converted freighters.”

In February, CDB Aviation added 12 A330P2F aircraft, taking its commitment to 14 aircraft. Two months later, the first converted A330-300P2F was handed over on lease to Mexico-based mas. As the airline already operates an A330-200P2F leased from Altavair, delivered in January, it becomes the first to operate both types. The A330-300P2F will be operated mainly on routes to Europe, while the A330-200P2F will be operated on new scheduled routes to China, which will start before the end of the 1H22.

Such is demand that EFW is planning to increase production to 60 aircraft by the end of 2024, consisting of 31 A320/A321P2F and 29 A330P2F and it expects these types in future to dominate in both the narrowbody and widebody sectors. It does acknowledge that the pandemic has affected the supply chain, trained manpower and availability of hangar slots but says its global network gives it flexibility to cope with the situation.

Mammoth

A new entrant in the widebody sector is Mammoth Freighters. Set up in 2021 by industry veterans Bill Wagner and Bill Tarpley and backed by private investment funds managed by Fortress Investment Group, it has ten ex-Delta Boeing 777-200LRs as its initial feedstock. With a Boeing data licence, it also plans to convert 777-300ERs as well.

In September last year, it entered into a strategic partnership with GDC Technics to use the latter’s 840,000ft² facility at Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, TX, which has six widebody hangar bays and, in November, it announced that Cargojet Airways of Canada had become the launch customer with the signing of a sales agreement for two 777-200LRMF freighters, plus options for a further two -200LRMFs and two -300ERMFs.

Brian McCarthy, vice President marketing and sales, says the U. S. MRO industry is facing challenges with finding skilled labour, while wages are increasing, and GDC seemed a good choice of base, being in the middle of the country and well established. Eventually, up to 400 people could be employed at Mammoth, as the cargo doors and surround structures will also be built on site, ensuring tight control of the supply chain.

The plan is ramp up to four conversion lines in Fort Worth. After certification, two additional lines will be stablished at another North American facility. This should be followed by a facility in the Asia Pacific region and another in Europe or the Middle East.

He says selection of the 777 was not so much to do with dropping values as there being plenty of feedstock available. There have been plenty of lease returns, unrelated to problems caused by the pandemic, with many more to come – he reckons there are around 100 in the desert. While the situation has been helped by some -300s being parked a bit prematurely, he thinks this will tighten up eventually. Mammoth has enough feedstock until 2026, as does the industry as a whole.

The main reason for so much availability is the extreme cost of refurbishing the cabins. Transitioning an aircraft to a new customer can cost up to $15 million with upgrading IFE, introducing connectivity and in-seat power.

He says those people who moved quickly when they heard about the project and reserved slots are going to be the leaders in this fleet type.

At the moment, the tooling is arriving at Fort Worth to support the prototype aircraft (MSN 29742) during the conversion process. He says the company is less focused on the “ceremonial metal cutting ceremony” than on getting the interior prepared. It should look like a freighter at the end of 3Q22, when it will be presented to the FAA. Entry into serviced is predicted by Cargojet to be in late 2023 or early 2024.

Interest is coming from a wide range of operators. He points out that, for narrowbody conversions, people will wait patiently up to two years but, for widebody conversions, they tend to play a longer game, unless they are acquiring a large number of aircraft. This partly due to the amount of planning required to get such an aircraft into service, so the interest level extends to three to three and a half years. That means sales efforts are concentrated on slots in 2026.

With four lines at Fort Worth and three additional sites running two lines, production levels should be four aircraft per year per line. There will be a “bow wave” for the next few years before it settles down to a more normal level.

He comments that while plenty of parked aircraft is good for conversion feedstock, it is bad if they are parked too early. The burden of looking after aircraft in storage to the highest OEM technical standards is labour intensive and very expensive and will work for several years. However, longer than that, there will be deterioration and the cost of return to service is very high.

He adds that there is a possibility that operators waiting for new aircraft deliveries may postpone release or retirement of 777s until they get a clear picture of orders or, at the very least, a realignment of promised deliveries.

There are two widebody markets. The 777-300LRMF is ideally suited for the e-commerce and integrator industry because of its cargo density and payload. For governments, logistic companies and general cargo haulers, he feels that that there is a movement where nobody wants to get caught short of lift again, as happened in the pandemic, with the loss of billions of dollars. Having found themselves unable to get their products to market at a fair price, they are no longer willing to leave it to the airlines. They want to create relationships where they have a high degree of control over the aircraft.

This is perfectly illustrated by an agreement between DHL and Cargojet signed in March. Cargojet will provide ACMI, CMI, charter, and aircraft dry lease services to DHL’s international requirements for Europe and North, South, Central and Latin America, as well as Asia. The airline already utilizes 12 freighters to service DHL’s current requirements but will add five 767 freighters during the 2022-23. DHL intends to be Cargojet’s inaugural launch customer for the 777-200LRMF.

McCarthy says long range, high-capacity freighters with new generation engines with reduced fuel burn are the future, removing older gas guzzlers.

Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) outfits are honing digital capabilities to capture Covid’s lessons learned just as new problems challenge their ability to prosper.

Easing now are disease-related fears and restrictions that since 2020 depressed demand for air travel and MRO services that support it. Rising is the number of people who can fly without wearing masks or proving they are free of Covid. From Albania to Zimbabwe, dozens of countries have lifted travel constraints.

That fueled flight hours, a key MRO demand driver. According to the latest MRO forecast, narrow-body aircraft on average flew 7.3 hours each day this year (through late April) and wide-bodies averaged 10.8. That’s 92 and 94 percent of 2019’s rate, respectively.

“The good news is we have a very tangible recovery under way,” said Airlines for America Chief Economist John Heimlich; the group represents leading U.S. airlines. “Covid seems to be legitimately behind us.”

But headwinds abound — inflation at a 40-year high, rising interest rates, a depleted pool of skilled aviation labor and intensifying geopolitical instability. Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine jacked up tensions and inflation. “It’s really a matter of the ability of our revenue recovery to keep up with cost escalation,” Heimlich said.

In addition, MROs face high expectations to reduce their environmental impact and guard against cyber threats.

Fleet Facts

MROs have spent the last two years revamping operations to counter Covid challenges that included thousands of aircraft parked or retired, revenue streams disrupted, supply chains broken and operations being run remotely.

Many MROs’ responses involved new or expanded digital capabilities, from software supporting maintenance planning, artificial intelligence-enabled inspection techniques, and remote and collaborative inspection.

“A year ago, when in retrospect we correctly thought the worst of Covid was behind us, a lot of companies began preparing for the future, asking what it will look like,” said Alex Youngs, director of Sales and Marketing Business Intelligence for Airlines and Fleets at StandardAero, the large independent MRO. “People started to say, ‘Digitalization needs be part of my go-forward strategy,’ both from an airline and an MRO perspective. Covid forced a lot of companies to reassess how quickly they were going to embrace some of these new technologies.”

Global consultancy Oliver Wyman’s annual outlook, “Global Fleet and MRO Market Forecast 2022-2032,” sums up what the industry faces.

“Covid took its bite,” said Brian Prentice, global lead for Operations, Manufacturing, and MRO for the firm. By 2032, global MRO spending should reach $126 billion, up from $79 billion this year. “That’s back to where it used to be before Covid.” But it would be $160 billion short of the firm’s pre-Covid, 2020 forecast.

On January 1, the report notes, the world’s airliner fleet was the size of 2017’s fleet. It is not expected to top its January 2020 apex of almost 28,000 until 2023’s first half. The fleet should grow from about 25,580 now to nearly 38,200 in a decade, with the North American fleet growing from 7,762 to about 9,600 — still one percent short of pre-Covid size.

Driving this fleet growth would be a push by manufacturers to increase production, Prentice said. By mid-decade, production should exceed 2018’s peak, with narrow-bodies growing from 58 to 64 percent of the world fleet by 2032.

As airlines pursue younger, more efficient fleets, Prentice said, more than 40 percent of the North American fleet will be retired. By 2032, 80 percent of new North American narrow-bodies will be sustainable-generation aircraft.

A fleet in transition is redefining the MRO market, the forecast says, with higher retirements of aircraft due to enter intensive maintenance. Demand should recover to pre-Covid levels by 2024, but growth after 2027 would be 2.8 percent annually.

Slower growth won’t occur everywhere, Oliver Wyman says. MRO demand for the active China-based fleet exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 2021’s end. But demand in Western Europe likely won’t recover until 2025.

Oliver Wyman also released its annual MRO survey of 150-plus senior executives. Eighty-five percent said finding workers was their biggest headache. “Already labor shortages are causing delays and flight cancellations,” Prentice said, “and that squeeze is expected to get tighter.”

Their second biggest concern is inflation.

Sustainability Soars

A new concern was sustainability imperatives. Many executives were unsure how these would affect their business, Prentice said. But almost all “recognized sustainability as a top priority moving forward” to meet reduction commitments, curb public ire over climate change, and avoid more regulation.

“The next few years are pivotal as Covid, economic forces, traveler sentiment, and government policies compel the industry to re-imagine its future,” Prentice and Oliver Wyman Senior VP/General Manager Anthony DiNota wrote in the forecast.

Current challenges may overcome the reluctance some aircraft operators and MROs feel to move on from paper-based systems and clunky, in-house electronic solutions based on Microsoft Excel and Access, according to numerous executives.

“I think we are on the cusp of airlines now saying of digital capabilities, ‘This should be general practice,’ rather than, ‘Convince us to do this,’ said StandardAero’s Youngs.

Today’s predicament may spur MROs to re-think Lean philosophy and practices that have underpinned industrial operations for decades.

Supply Chain Sputters

“There’s tremendous supply chain pressure,” said Matt Medley, Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing industry director at IFS, which develops and delivers enterprise software to maintenance operations worldwide. “There are chip shortages. Oil is hard to come by. Shipping is a nightmare. The traditional Lean philosophy of not carrying any inventory is not always the best when you don’t have the most stable supply chain.”

Southwest Airlines is among those digitally transforming MRO operations and moving away from paper. It has deployed IFS solutions as the enterprise maintenance management standard to help optimize aircraft reliability and availability. In addition, the transformation is improving compliance “by providing real-time validation at the point of maintenance,” said Landon Nitschke, Southwest Airlines senior vice president, Technical Operations.

The IFS product is live across Southwest’s fleet of almost 730 aircraft. It provides Southwest maintenance with information to streamline configuration control and compliance management processes and helps drive efficiencies and automation of processes enabled with a mobile user experience.

“IFS gives us the peace of mind and control we need to not only maximize the airtime of our fleet but deliver” on-time flights and a great travel experience for customers, Nitschke said. He called the change “the largest single MRO system migration in the history of our industry.”

Southwest joins IFS airline customers that include Air France-KLM Group, China Airlines, and Qantas.

Medley and others said good information technology is among the best ways to extract efficiency from MRO operations while adjusting to Lean’s newly emphasized shortcomings.

“There’s been more and more cost pressure on airlines” and by extension MROs, said Elliot Margul, maintenance planning software company Aerostrat’s co-founder and CEO. “The future for them is to continue to run as lean as possible. One of the best ways to do that is IT tools.”

Margul started Seattle-based Aerostrat with co-founders Cody Morris and Frankie Angai in 2015 after working in heavy maintenance planning and Maintenance & Engineering finance for Alaska Airlines. He found the tools available insufficient for planning maintenance tasks. They did not provide enough functionality to properly forecast and budget an aircraft’s visits years into the future. A proper plan needed to take in details, time requirements, and costs that can vary significantly airframe to airframe due to individual characteristics (such as corrosion tendencies and past repairs). “If an airline has an aircraft program that’s in C1 through C8 inspections, each aircraft has different lower-level tasks,” Margul said. “One C1 might take 20 days, one might take 27 days.”

Aerros is a secure, Cloud-based planning tool that helps customers manage such complexities. It enables detailed planning of individual tasks over the aircraft’s entire life all while maintaining a database of past work done. Aerros is designed to help manage factors such as timing and task requirements of airworthiness directives, service bulletins, engineering change orders, access overlaps, as well as labor staffing and skill requirements of future tasks.

A key benefit is Aerros’ ability to help maintenance planners understand consequences of decisions made today. “When you’re inducting an aircraft in a couple of weeks, all the decisions you’re making today affect you down the road,” Margul said. “If I decide to push tasks out because of budgetary reasons, how does that affect me a year, four years from now?”

Aerostrat is adding collaboration tools to support working remotely or with people in different locations. It has added a commenting section, and is working on integrating Aerros with Microsoft Teams. “Our priority is collaboration,” Margul said. “That’s becoming the new normal.”

Aerostrat’s customers include Alaska and sister carrier Horizon Air, FedEx Express and JetBlue.

Tech = Efficiencies

“MROs are very aware of digitization’s benefits,” said Adam Frost, product manager at OASES. “Most have ambitious targets to get it done.” He, Margul, and others said the challenge for IT providers is to meet MROs’ need with minimal disruption. “We have an opportunity to make huge improvements to efficiencies with fully digital processes.”

As customers worked at reduced capacity during the pandemic, OASES accelerated development of its use of the Cloud, implementing it for 20 new and migrated customers. It is preparing to launch a Maintenance Control feature focused on short-term planning that will “provide a clear view of the current maintenance situation, allowing our users to react appropriately to defects and scheduling changes,” Frost said.

OASES this year signed contracts with Estonia’s Skystream Airlines, start-up AirConnect of Romania, and Bulgaria’s Holiday Europe.

Numerous MROs and vendors seek to analyze maintenance data through artificial intelligence. Drones are one vehicle for doing that. Among those working on using drones to speed and supplement visual airframe inspections are AAR Corp., Korean Air, and LATAM.

Lufthansa Technik recently concluded a three-year project to explore using AI-enabled drones in base maintenance. Base mechanics must examine an aircraft’s outer skin in a crouched or crawling position, secured by harnesses to stay safe at great heights. “What if this process could be performed by inspection drones that eliminate poor ergonomics and ensure job safety and digital data output?” said Jan-Christopher Knufinke, the MRO’s Lean innovation manager.

Researchers set out to verify whether visual inspections for damage or irregularities could be optimized with an autonomous drone flying about 3.3 feet (one meter) from an airliner. Tests showed that a drone with automatic collision-avoidance/obstacle detection and an HD camera could capture high-resolution images of damage as small as 0.2 inch (5 mm) square.

“Implementation cannot be accomplished overnight,” Knufinke said. Infrastructure adjustments must be made, including 3D imaging of hangar infrastructure, aircraft and ground support equipment, to enable the drone to fly safely inside. Legal requirements must be addressed. “The next step will be to identify further use cases.”

Connected Aircraft Will Transform MRO

Others are using advanced systems to streamline inspections.

Safran Landing Systems and ATR have developed a landing gear diagnostics service using state-of-the-art data analysis to optimize the regional turboprop manufacturer’s response times after hard landings. Smart Lander draws on hundreds of thousands of hard-landing simulations to recommend maintenance actions to operators based on a landing’s hardness and the landing gear load level sustained. The process takes less than an hour.

“Our former process could take up to 10 to 20 working days,” said ATR Customer Support and Services Senior Vice-President David Brigante, and required analyses by ATR and Safran before the aircraft could return to service.

In March, Structural Monitoring Systems won FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) approval for a system that allows expedited structural crack inspections. It has been working with Delta Airlines to prove out its Comparative Vacuum Monitor (CVM) sensor technology. The test case was crack inspections around the Gogo Wi-Fi antenna atop a Boeing 737-800.

CVM uses vacuum and differential pressures to detect a skin crack surface by cycling air through a sensor and measuring whether outflow matches or exceeds inflow. Dave Thompson, Delta TechOps vice president for engineering, quality and safety, said the CVM system can be installed within a day and allows mechanics “to do this inspection in an hour, compared to a full day and a hangar visit.”

Digital capabilities will benefit from more communications-capable airliners entering service. Oliver Wyman says new-generation aircraft of the 2010s made up two percent of the world fleet in 2019. By 2032, they should be 51 percent of the fleet.

“Connected aircraft will digitally transform the way airlines operate.” Inmarsat Aviation’s senior vice president of technology, Kurt Weidemeyer says. And MROs, too.