Predictive Maintenance
As touched upon before, one major advantage of big data and digital twins is their ability to support predictive maintenance. Using digital technology, an MRO can detect issues in physical systems long before they become apparent to mechanics or pilots. This allows the MRO to alert the helicopter owner/operator and remedy the issue in a timely, scheduled manner — rather than everyone being ambushed by an aircraft-on-ground (AOG) breakdown at some far-from- base location.
“Predictive maintenance and prognostics enhance availability,
minimize logistic
delay time and footprint for spares and support equipment, which keeps aircraft flying longer and cheaper,” said Halvorsen. “From a legacy fleet standpoint, they allow us to ease the sustainment burden by having readily available virtual data to select parts that can be reproduced additively to support long-term sustainment of aircraft that may have otherwise sunset due to the supply chain no longer producing key components.”
Preventative maintenance is one of many digitally enabled advances being pursued by Airbus Helicopters. “We are working in many areas that all address the same purpose:
being able to deliver added value to the business thanks to innovation, mainly data intelligence and automation,” said Olivier Lemaitre, the company’s head of MRO and upgrades. “For example, we’re leveraging connected services and big data to better predict the maintenance needs of helicopters and to optimize our operations. One of the technical solutions that allows us to do so is the Airbus Skywise open data platform, where we input data and run analyses to detect potential issues or weaknesses in our parts coverage.”
In line with the industry’s trend towards digitalization, Airbus recently launched the HDataPower package. It is a data-driven service offering aimed at Helionix customers (users of H135, H145, H175 and H160 helicopters). “This package is
designed to
boost flight, airworthiness, and maintenance operations through easy-to-use digital solutions that leverage data generated by helicopter systems, such as flight data recorders and avionics systems (Helionix®
) Photo: Airbus Helicopters
Technology is key to operations in the Airbus Helicopters dynamic assemblies centre where the OEM also handles dynamic component repairs.
or
maintenance software and applications used to manage fleets,” Lemaitre said. “One example of what this means for helicopter maintenance is that the operator would receive data-driven suggestions for optimizing their scheduled maintenance plan.”
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