Data drives ‘continuous improvement in business jet operations’
In-flight connectivity is essential not just in the cabin but in the cockpit too. Mike Stones reports
KING AIR ENGINE records kept on pieces of paper. Dead reckoning to plot the position of a business jet mid Atlantic (because latitude and longitude data were unavailable). Decades ago, these were standard methods of monitoring engine performance. In-flight connectivity has revolutionised not just passenger services in the cabin but also engine maintenance and operational safety in the cockpit.
Innovation over the past seven to eight years has been rapid, according to Luke Bowman, senior product manager for GE Aerospace, Software as a Service. “Connectivity applications related to pilots include the safety uses of flight data, fuel, predictive engine maintenance and operational data,” says Bowman. Communications, navigation and the receipt of the latest weather data are additional benefits.
Powering 70% of the world’s commercial aircraft, GE Aerospace has been a leader in advancing connectivity applications that are revolutionising engine monitoring and maintenance. Norma Santos, a senior staff analytics engineer with GE Aerospace, says in-flight connectivity has facilitated predictive engine maintenance.
“Connectivity is used to remotely monitor the health of engines in-flight,” says Santos. “This helps us plan ahead for maintenance during down times and for identifying part needs to avoid an AoG [aircraft-on-ground] due to lack of parts availability.”
Diagnosed in the air
Warning of engine problems or required maintenance also helps with the timely dispatch of mobile repair teams or tools to arrive on site if additional support is needed. “Snapshots” of engine data can be transmitted from the aircraft at different points in the flight. “These alerts are registered in-flight, so engine faults or issues can be diagnosed in the air without waiting until the aircraft lands,” says Santos. That significantly improves the timeliness of troubleshooting operations.
The company offers a specific service for GE engines – known as Predictive Health Monitoring. Greg Ryan, sales director, GE Aerospace describes it like this: “GE Aerospace’s Predictive Health Monitoring, an industry-leading data diagnostics and analytics programme, provides engine fault identification and isolation while also giving GE Aerospace the ability to identify potential future failures and proactively prevent them.”
The prognostic health management system is used on the GE Aerospace Passport 20 engine installed on the Bombardier Global 7500 and upcoming Global 8000 aircraft. The complementary service is provided to all GE OnPoint Global 7500 customers and will also be complementary to the Global 8000 OnPoint customers at entry into service.
Engine data messages are encrypted before dispatch via Bombardier to GE. After data analysis, notifications are sent directly to customers. Ryan highlights that the technology is predictive not reactive – and the benefits extend beyond individual aircraft to encompass the whole fleet. “Since we data linked the fleet, we can look at trends within many aircraft not just one,” says Ryan. “That enables us to identify fleet-wide trends – so we can address them proactively and not just react to a problem.” That’s an additional benefit both to maintain safety standards and to avoid AoG events, he adds.
“Thousands of data points are sent to us in real time and enable us to be predictive on what maintenance actions might be required…”
GE Aerospace is also able to aggregate and trend data shared by operators through a programme called Continuous Engine Operating Data (CEOD). “It’s a cross benefit of our digital business and our engines business being together,” says Bowman.
But it’s not just engine performance that is monitored in-flight. Modern connectivity systems also enable pilot performance to be recorded and analysed together, offering access to a wealth of information ranging from weather data to likely airfield diversions.
Two GE Aerospace, Software as a Service products benefiting flight operations are Safety Insight for Business Jets and FlightPulse for Business Jets.
Safety Insight for Business Jets – also known as C-FOQA (Corporate Jet Flight Operations Quality Assurance) helps operators improve safety by analysing flight recorder data and tracking safety metrics. “The platform delivers fast, accurate reporting of safety events, trends and risk factors, ensuring the right data reaches the right people for informed decision-making and continuous improvement,” according to the company.
The C-FOQA programmes include about 400 operators responsible for about 1,200 aircraft. “Everything from Pilatus turboprops to the biggest Bombardiers and Gulfstreams are in the programme,” Bowman tells us.
FlightPulse for Business Jets (also known as FlightPulse for C-FOQA) is an app designed by pilots for pilots, says GE Aerospace, Software as a Service. This provides tailored operational data to enhance decision-making in safety, efficiency and sustainability. “This fully configurable, modular application gives pilots access to platform data for pre-flight and post-flight insights, driving continuous improvement in business jet operations.”
Data available from the app includes flight safety briefings about smaller airports open to business aircraft. This might include local obstructions on airport approaches, which could be vital if an aircraft is forced to divert to a smaller or unfamiliar airport.
“In the corporate jet world, a much larger variety of airports are visited compared with airlines,” says Bowman. “So corporate pilots will oftentimes fly into airports they have never visited before compared with airline pilots who fly familiar routes and into familiar airports all the time.”
It’s not just local information available at the press of a button. The FOQA system – used by the airline industry for years – enables the gathering of data on individual pilot performance together with a population of pilots. This information can be supplied on a redacted basis – shielding individual pilots from identification after a less than flawless landing, for example.
“The nice part of the C-FOQA system is that it offers not just a stick [for questionable performance] but also a carrot [to celebrate above average performance],” says Ryan. “It not only tells you what you did wrong, it tells you what you did right on that last steep angle approach. So, you can use the data as a safety manager to drive home some of the things pilots are doing well – and you have the ability to prove it”.
This has long been used to inform pilot training programmes to support safe and efficient flight procedures. Using flight data monitoring (FDM) and flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) programmes could help cut safety costs by $82m/year, according to a Frost and Sullivan report for GE Aviation’s Digital Group in November 2019.
“We are just scratching the surface of what we can do with the amount of data at our disposal”
Ryan believes the pace of innovation, particularly over the past five years or so, has been rapid. “I’ve been in the business for 35 years and I remember doing trend monitoring on pieces of paper for King Airs,” he tells us. “Today, literally thousands of data points are sent to us in real time and enable us to be predictive on what maintenance actions might be required and how urgently they need to be carried out.
“What GE has been producing in the past five to seven years for the Passport Programme demonstrates how we lead in the segment with regard to in-flight connectivity,” he says. “I want people to know that when they are flying GE-powered products, we are developing that leading-edge market – not just the engines but also for airframe health and cabin health.”
Bowman describes getting data to pilots – part of the FlightPulse for Business Jets programme – as being one of “the last-mile problems” solved recently. “It’s been really good to see the sharing of meaningful data about flight operations concerning large business aircraft,” he says.
The rate of progress has benefitted not from the big rise in satellite capacity but new aircraft models. “Once a new aircraft comes out of the door, retrofitting new capacity can take a long time,” he says. “So, the entry into service of aircraft with the new technology is really enabling a lot of these newer use cases.”
Generally, the bigger the aircraft, the more parameters and data points are available, although GE notes the increasing availability of meaningful data even from turboprop aircraft like the Pilatus PC-12. Enough data is available to enable safety and predictive maintenance programs.
Santos expects recent connectivity progress will be matched by further advances in the years up to 2030.
“We are just scratching the surface of what we can do with the amount of data at our disposal,” she explains. “There’s big potential to capture and identify more things than we were able to do in the past.”
Bowman describes it like this (quoting GE Aerospace’s general manager): “From an engine perspective, it used to be we got a few snapshots out of a flight. Now, we can get entire movies from flights. And that change in fidelity brings a massive number of things you can do with the data.”
One of those things is delivering sustainability information through the C-FOQA system. GE Aerospace is already deploying this technology on fuel efficiency and other sustainability topics in the airline industry. For example, more than 2,000 Quantas Group pilots with six airlines are using FlightPulse. According to the carrier, the app has helped to achieve a 15% increase in the adoption of fuel saving procedures, which saved approximately 5.7mkg (6,300t) of carbon emissions in the first year of use.
While business jet operators are using the technology to optimise route planning, Bowman describes its use in the sector to achieve sustainability objectives as “nascent”. He adds: “It’s an emerging technology for corporate jets.” That’s because some systems and procedures available to commercial carriers are unavailable to business jets.
Bowman wants to widen the adoption of data-based safety tools. “Some of these tools are in early adopter stage,” he says. “Regardless of whether the technology is offered by us or our competitors, I want to see more use of safety products in order for us to have safe flying.”
