John47;
Originally Posted by From the linked GM Report on Business article
. . .
Jacques Kavafian, vice-president of Research Capital Inc., is also impressed by AeroMechanical. He owns stock in the company and Research Capital has a relationship with the company as an investment banker. "[The technology] is attractive because it helps airlines save a lot of money by tracking fuel consumption and by also tracking maintenance occurrences and alerting the airlines in real time of any problems that occur. No one else really can do that in a way that is economical like AeroMechanical does. Their technology is essentially the cheaper way to transmit the data in real time from the airplane to the ground. ..."
"That $50,000 [installation cost] will save airlines anywhere from $100,000 per plane per year up to $500,000 per plane per year. It's a savings amount that no one can ignore."
AeroMechanical, which has about 50 employees, already has the appropriate supplemental-type certificates for their equipment to be used on a number of Boeing and Airbus aircraft, and Mr. Bradley says it is compatible with all major aircraft manufacturers. Mr. Kavafian says AeroMechanical has installed 180 AFIRS units on aircraft at various airlines.
"We see ourselves as being in the right place at the right time, with the right product," he says.
If I were marketing this product, (and I have no opinion on it because I have no information on it), I would not be using Jacques Kavafian.
Mr. Kavafian is speaking as an investor and a businessman, not as a safety or data specialist. He is known as a controversial commentator on the commercial aspects of the airline business in Canada. He knows nothing about flight data analysis, about installations, about how this work is really done and how the data is used and handled.
Any flight data analysis product faces the same challenges of buy-in and competing for limited resources. I think the concept is a good one but as "FLYHT"'s website states up front, data security guarantees by users including flight crews is a requirement. However, no information is provided by FLYHT as to how those problems are addressed. With others, I've been doing flight data analysis for a long time and these issues are not easily resolved, either procedurally, technically or politically.
PJ2