Norwegian wants more data for quickly analyzing aircraft operations. Its current process for getting that performance data off its 737NG fleet relies heavily on manual efforts, reducing flexibility and responsiveness. Thanks to the webFB Wireless Electronic Flight Bag module from Astronics Ballard Technology the airline will soon automate that data collection. After a year of trialing the hardware on 10 planes Norwegian will roll out the webFB hardware across all its 737NG aircraft.
The pilots carry electronic flight bags (EFBs) today. Those systems are a key component in the new program. The webFB module connects to an ARINC 717 data bus on the aircraft and activates a small wireless server on board. That server relays the desired data to the EFBs throughout the flight. The EFBs sync to a central repository when on the ground (or through an on-board wifi network), passing the desired data along to the back office for aggregation and further analysis. That’s helpful for the “big data” efforts at the company. But critical bits of information can also be processed in real-time on board. That makes a big difference for the flights while in the air, too.
The push to better manage and process the significant volume data that aircraft produce is a nascent industry. It is also one that promises to deliver billions of dollars in savings to airlines and massive revenue to the inflight connectivity providers as well. Transferring all the details on and off the aircraft to be processed means lots of data consumption. And the theory is that if it generates real cash savings to the airlines they’ll invest in the up-front costs – both hardware and bandwidth – to realize those goals. But what if the airlines can realize a significant portion of those benefits without dramatically increasing bandwidth costs to get there?
The connectivity industry remains in the early developmental stages of its “internet of things in aviation” lifecycle. In recent conversations not a single supplier suggested that airlines were close to delivering on that connectivity play and most still project a 3-5 year horizon for any substantive developments on this front. Given the long-bandied suggestion that the airline-driven revenue would support the connectivity investments this lack of progress on the operational side is mildly concerning for connectivity company revenue forecasts.
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It is also worth looking again at what some vendors are doing with ultra lightweight bandwidth offerings. The Iridium NEXT constellation continues its progress towards full commercial implementation later this year and can deliver a thin pipe to commercial aircraft at a very reasonable cost. No movie streaming on NEXT but the value of keeping operational data on a separate network is very real, and many of the airline cost savings can be realized quickly and cost effectively with such a program. Gaining access to the better performing voice services on NEXT versus the legacy Iridium network comes as a bonus.
Ultimately the airlines and passengers win if any of these solutions deliver even a fraction of their promised benefits. And making tangible progress towards that goal should be celebrated. After all, we don’t see such moves very often.
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I never thought about the flight deck connection. With more and more of the pilots using tablets and not physical charts anymore, if they lose their connection, does that endanger the flight? Do they have backups or upload charts before the flight? Or do they connect completely separately from the main cabin?
The electronic flight bag (EFB) systems are designed to operate fully offline and independent of everything else. The devices need power, of course, but the airlines are adding plugs up front to help with that (Astronics also announced a deal for 600 aircraft the same day as this one; I think this is more interesting to write about). So the flight should operate fine even if they are not connected. What these offerings bring is an option for adding additional information to the planning process. If the pilots use a normal internet connection maybe they can get updated weather detail en route (more important on ULH where lots can change in the 12 hours since the initial planning). Or they can transmit weather data to help others.
With the webFB kit talked about here they can get details on things like fuel burn or other performance metrics to use in mid-flight updates. And then once on the ground the data gets aggregated back for bigger analysis. But, again, no risk to flight safety if the system is offline.
I’m a software developer for an efb app that’s on around 75-80% of domestic flights in the USA. We wrote our entire app to be available offline, even logging in you set a pin code that’s generally good for the duration of a trip. Much different than a typical logout after xx minutes of activity app.
Generally pilots have to sync charting and manual apps before a flight but aren’t responsible for updates after that until the next trip. This is still light years ahead of how paper worked.