10 Technologies To Watch

With the delivery of next-generation aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and developments in long-discussed technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) taking hold, the aviation MRO industry will see a variety of exciting and challenging developments in 2011. Here are the top 10 technologies that O&M thinks have the most potential for changing the aftermarket landscape in 2011 and beyond.

Automated Identification Technology (AIT)

Getting RFID technology on airborne parts has had a rocky start, but its future will become more stable because of a partnership very few people in the industry saw coming: Boeing and Fujitsu will jointly offer comprehensive automated identification technology (AIT) packages for retrofit on commercial aircraft—any manufacturer, any type. The first application should launch in the second quarter of 2012. Boeing originally planned to include RFID on its first 787, as did Airbus on its A380, but neither effort worked as envisioned.

Boeing’s Phil Coop, program manager for the new Boeing AIT business, told O&M that airlines understood the RFID benefits of Boeing’s earlier efforts but found it too cumbersome to make all of the pieces work together. Airlines also didn’t want AIT solely on new 787s, Coop said. Program delays prompted Boeing to refocus on getting the 787 to market without RFID while developing a complete AIT service for the existing fleet.

The partners’ one-stop-shop approach aims to take the complexity out of purchasing, implementing and managing the system. They provide everything—tags, readers, software, middleware, application software, data integration, training, validation and performance guarantees—to operators.

Fujitsu will work with other AIT suppliers, including MacSema for contact memory buttons and various RFID reader makers such as Intermec, to create the bundled offering because no one in the RFID industry can provide end-to-end solutions on its own, says Toshiya Sato, Fujistsu’s general manager of AIT.

Boeing initially will offer five standard RFID solutions: emergency equipment management (for oxygen generators, life jackets and all airborne emergency equipment), rotable management (for systems rotables such as starter generators and APUs), structural rotables (including fuselage doors, flaps and landing gear doors), repairables management (for non-serialized parts), and structural repairs and airframe degradation management (to monitor corrosion control and prevention programs, RVSM aerodynamics, etc.).

Boeing will manage the retrofits, but airlines and MROs can provide the labor, which means this could be a new business opportunity for the industry.

Structural Health Monitoring

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems are one of the most talked-about new technologies in engineering, and they will be standard on some aircraft components within the next few years. Although the commercial aftermarket may not see these systems on aircraft in 2011, the defense market already has shown interest in commercializing structural health monitoring systems for rotorcraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Structural systems for the air transport sector could be ready for retrofits or for new-production aircraft in the next five years. Condition-based maintenance for all aircraft components is unlikely in the near future, but applying health-monitoring sensors to parts such as fasteners likely will change the way scheduled inspections are done by allowing maintenance organizations to test for fatigue cracks in airframes using new non-destructive methods.

Metis Design Corp. says its IntelliConnector digital sensor infrastructure allows structural health monitoring systems to be commercially produced because the sensors are mounted rather than embedded and can work with customized software for different applications. The sensors monitor for airframe component anomalies such as cracks and delamination in real-time. Metis has developed two new iterations of its original MD3 sensor: a wireless product called the MD4 and a high-speed version called the MD7. Metis has been working with the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, NASA and several large aeronautical companies on SHM research.

Another company that has partnered with researchers to produce SHM systems is aluminum manufacturer Alcoa. As O&M has reported, Alcoa is working with Stanford University’s structures and composite laboratories on additive interleaved multilayer electromagnetic sensors, which have special shanks that can detect fatigue cracks at their source (October 2010, pg. 57). The system essentially turns airframe fasteners into sensors, and scientists estimate that it will hit the market within 2-3 years.

The Alcoa system could reduce inspection frequencies for wing stringers from 5,000 hr. to 10,000 hr., and possibly lead to virtually maintenance-free aircraft. But the idea of doing away with inspections at the early onset of SHM systems may be jumping the gun. Dr. Seth Kessler, president and founder of the Metis Design Corp., predicts that operators will continue using manual checks in tandem with the new technology for the first few years of implementation to demonstrate its credibility.

Aircraft Health Monitoring

The technology behind aircraft health monitoring systems is worth watching alongside SHM. For instance, Honeywell Aerospace’s newest crew information system/maintenance system (CIS/MS) will appear on the Boeing 787, and unlike previous systems, it allows airline operations centers to look at fault data in real time and implement condition-based maintenance. The CIS/MS for the 787 is one of a growing number of aircraft health monitoring (AHM) products that can change the way that airline maintenance crews respond to component repairs to potentially cut down mechanical delays. The prognostic systems looks at trend data, models and reasoning algorithms to project future maintenance events.

Honeywell’s system is located within the central diagnostic computer of an aircraft’s electronic systems. It gathers indicated faults from various systems on the aircraft and can determine the root cause of a fault based on how the systems are interconnected. When the CIS/MS isolates a fault, the data can be electronically sent during the flight via a datalink such as satcom. The turnaround time of detecting the fault in the air and having maintenance crews ready with the right line replaceable unit (LRU) is called “virtual maintenance time,” a concept that Honeywell says can minimize dispatch delays.

Airlines will have to decide to integrate real-time data management from the aircraft health monitoring systems. Honeywell and other AHS manufacturers provide trend monitoring and data analysis services, but ultimately airline customers must choose the data management method that works best for them.

Legacy systems can impede progress. “One of the difficulties of trying to deal with legacy systems is the content, or the scope of the data that’s available, and then also the accuracy of whatever models you have,” says Bob Witwer, VP of advanced technology for Honeywell. “Because, things like prognostic models have gone through advancement over the last 5-10 years.”

Energy Harvesting

The idea of energy harvesting—the process of converting energy from external sources such as solar energy, temperature differences or even body heat into energy that can power vehicles—may seem a bit far-fetched. That’s a fair assumption, as scientists are only in the infant stages of testing materials and power systems with energy harvesting capabilities, especially for the aerospace industry. But the concept of converting passive energy could very well be relevant to aviation in the next few years, if only to power low-energy components.

For example, EADS Innovation Works announced in August that its scientists had begun testing a lightweight sensor network that uses temperature differences between aircraft cabin interior air and the air surrounding the cabin to power an aircraft health monitoring system. According to its team, the ambient air outside the cabin measures between -4F to -58F, compared to passenger cabin air that stays near 70F. A thermoelectric generator converts the heat flow between the two areas into the power needed for the health monitoring sensors to work.

Other applications are underway, as well. Honeywell says that it is looking into energy harvesting sensors for its health monitoring systems, and Airbus alluded to the idea of using body heat captured in seats or aircraft cabin beds to power aircraft systems in its “The Future by Airbus” consumer report. Boeing also is engaged in energy harvesting research, but its projects would see application on post-787 aircraft, at the soonest.

While energy harvesting is a few years away, scientists and engineers are undertaking research projects to learn more about how the technology could realistically be used to power small components such as reading lights or even structural and aircraft health monitoring systems.

Engine Coatings

A big trend in engine services is low thermal conductivity coatings. By adding rare earth metals to thermal barrier coatings, engineers at companies such as Pratt & Whitney with their Half-k coating and Chromalloy with the Low-k coating have reduced the conductivity of high-pressure turbine (HPT) blades and vanes by about 50%. Although the high price of the rare earth metals will likely make these coatings more expensive than the “standard k” coatings that preceded them, the low thermal conductivity coatings provide benefits such as less fuel burn and increased on-wing time for hot-section components. In 2011, Chromalloy will release its Low-k coating specifically for HPT vanes on the PW4000 engine, and coatings and engine manufacturers will likely compete to provide low thermal conductivity solutions for the same engine types. (See Technical Innovation, pg. 45, for more on Chromalloy’s coating.)

MTU Aero Engines also has a portfolio of impressive coatings research in development, including a new application method called kinetic cold gas spraying, or K3. Developed by Dr. Bertram Kopperger and Dr. Manuel Hertter, K3 involves using a spray gun filled with fine powder material to apply coatings instead of lasers; the method can be used with materials such as nickel, titanium and magnesium alloys. The high particle velocity produced by the spraying process forms a dense coating around parts to heighten their structural durability, Kopperger said in the December issue of MTU’s Report magazine. MTU says K3 is the first coating process that can replace the “porous coating structure” produced by traditional thermal spray applications. K3, MTU says, opens up the possibility of repairing components that did not make sense to fix before, such as worn-down flanges or engine casting components.

Self-Sustaining Materials

Research and development for self-repairing materials is a growing field at the university level, and engineers are taking a closer look at how to use materials that can repair themselves for aerospace applications. Inspired by the healing capabilities of life forms, including human beings, scientists from the University of Bristol described in a 2007 paper called “Self-healing Polymer Composites: Mimicking Nature to Enhance Performance” how polymer materials can mimic bodily functions such as blood clotting, bone mending and bleeding to heal themselves in case of a rupture. And in 2010, scientists and engineers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign outlined in a paper entitled “Polymer Microvascular Network Composites” ways in which materials can heal themselves through microvascular networks filled with fluid to promote self-cooling properties.

Artificial Neural Networks

By using a computational model to assess historical information and predict when certain problems occur, artificial neural networks in aircraft can help detect corrosion of materials and predict maintenance for engines. In a 2008 paper entitled “Application of Artificial Neural Networks in Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Solutions,” engineers Soumitra Paul, Kunal Kapoor, Devashish Jasani, Rachit Dudhwewala, Vijay Bore Gowda and T.R.Gopalakrishnan Nair of Bengalaru, India, described how artificial neural networks (ANN) in aircraft can revolutionize the MRO industry by creating a centralized network of OEM manuals for different aircraft parts. An ANN is based on neural networks in life forms and can synthesize important historical data such as an aircraft’s repair history, weather and climate, airport locations and utilization to give a more accurate picture of which systems could be causing problems.

Nanotechnology

Universities have partnered with leading aerospace and defense companies to develop nanomaterials with superpowers such as de-icing and energy storing capabilities. The University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) is funding the production of a nanomaterial called Nano Adaptive Hybrid Fabric (NAHF-X), or “fuzzy fiber,” which Goodrich plans to use in upcoming commercial aerospace projects. UDRI says that NAHF-X is the first nanomaterial that can be mass-produced in large quantities and that its carbon nanotubes can give composites properties such as thermal management and conductivity, energy conversion and biological sensing. This implies that the material can be molded into a battery, sensor or a heater, which means huge weight savings and new business opportunities.

Social Networking- Infused IFE

Cloud computing and social networks have revolutionized the way that airlines promote themselves, but data collaboration is driving changes in the design of inflight entertainment (IFE)systems as well. As more passengers bring personal electronic devices onboard, IFE systems manufacturers have cut down on weight by taking advantage of the robustness of passengers’ individual machines.

In early December, Lufthansa Technik released the CloudStream social content website that allows users to access multimedia on their own devices and then share their “virtually carry-ons” via social networking websites. Lufthansa released CloudStream in conjunction with its new-and-improved FlyNet onboard WiFi option, which allows passengers broadband Internet access through WLAN-enabled devices on overseas flights. Lufthansa partnered with Panasonic Avionics Corp. and Deutsche Telecom to launch FlyNet first in the New York, Detroit, and Atlanta markets.

FlyNet will be available on “virtually all” of Lufthansa’s intercontinental aircraft by the end of 2011, says the airline group.

Smartphone and Tablet Applications

In 2010, the reach of smartphones and new products like the iPad grew wider than most could have imagined. As business-saavy applications emerge, the executive or engineer who solely uses these multitasking machines for e-mail is missing out on some great data management tools.

One of the early adopters of the app for commercial aftermarket purposes is GE, which unveiled four suites of apps called myEngines at the Farnborough Air Show in July 2010. By using the Apple iPhone, Google Droid or any other smartphone, maintenance engineers can access real-time engine fleet data. Through the overhaul app, operators can track activity logs and click through inspection reports right on the screen, as well as access real-time test findings. For AOG orders, the materials app shows pricing and component availability. The health app monitors fleet data and sends alerts to maintenance engineers when engine data deviates from specified parameters, and the configuration app allows operators to search for engines based on tail number, engine position and full serial number, as well as to verify compliance for service bulletin and airworthiness directives.

In November, GE launched the fifth my Engines suite, for operations, which can do things like track engine configurations and spares. Chile’s LAN Airlines was the first airline to use myEngines for its fleet of CF6-80C2, GE90-115B, CFM56-5B and -5C engines. GE says there are now five suites with 20 applications, and more are on the way this year.