SITAONAIR selected by Rolls-Royce to simplify collection of Engine Health Monitoring data

Data from thousands of aircraft, keeping 150,000 people in the air at any one time, collated and distributed by AIRCOM FlightMessenger

Geneva – 5 July 2016 – Rolls-Royce has selected SITAONAIR’s AIRCOM® FlightMessenger to collate and distribute Engine Health Monitoring (EHM) data from its engines, which fly on over 6,000 aircraft and collectively operate for over 100-million hours per year. As part of its 24/7 monitoring service, Rolls-Royce will use the EHM data distributed by FlightMessenger to anticipate any maintenance needs and maximize the operational life of its engines.

Rolls-Royce engines intelligently collect and analyse data during flight. This data is then transmitted to Rolls-Royce to support its TotalCare® Service Solutions. Across the engine fleet this data amounts to thousands of messages per day. Rolls-Royce wanted a single system to receive and distribute these messages to its analytics and operations teams. FlightMessenger from SITAONAIR was selected to meet this demand.

 

An engineer checks data from a Rolls-Royce engine, image credit Rolls-Royce.

FlightMessenger is an integral component of a suite of products based on the AIRCOM Platform, which has been adopted by more than 100 airlines to host and process important data points for their flight operations.

The service operates alongside AIRCOM FlightTracker and FlightPlanner. The technology enables the processing of aircraft data in a harmonized, central and secure way, allowing airlines and industry manufacturers to improve operational efficiencies.

“Operational engine data provides both specific details to enable us to anticipate any maintenance needs with individual engines, and information that allows us to track performance trends across all our engine types,” said Nick Ward, Rolls-Royce, Product Manager, Predictive Equipment Health Management.

“With over 400 airline and leasing customers with engines fitted on thousands of aircraft, we have to manage billions of data points on-board per flight. FlightMessenger gives us the ability to receive and distribute transmitted summaries of all that information in the most efficient way. We then apply our analytics and draw insights from this data to provide our customers with informed decisions that improve their operations.”

AIRCOM Server FlightMessenger is hosted in SITA’s dedicated Air Transport Industry Cloud, a global infrastructure that is connected to 380 airports, 17,000 air transport sites, and 15,000 commercial aircraft.

“The aviation industry is facing several challenges relating to data from new-generation aircraft, and this new agreement with Rolls-Royce cements SITAONAIR’s position as a trusted provider capable of supporting every aspect of aircraft connectivity,” said David Lavorel, CEO of SITAONAIR.

“By optimising the collection of data, Rolls-Royce and airline engineers will be able to organise the maintenance and servicing of their engines more efficiently to make better use of the aircraft’s time on the ground.”

The AIRCOM ServerPlatform lies at the heart of SITAONAIR’s connected aircraft strategy. Through the neutral and sensitive data processing platform, SITAONAIR’s integrated applications play a key role in delivering real value through a more effective transmission of aircraft data across multiple fleet types, not only to airlines but the wider aviation industry.

Watch our Internet of Aircraft Things animation to find out more about SITAONAIR aircraft data management solutions.