Wirraway
15th Apr 2004, 17:41
Fri "The Australian"
Software deal to lift the lid of the black boxes
By Geoffrey Thomas
April 16, 2004
MONITORING black boxes to improve aircraft performance and safety is on the radar of the Australian arm of an Indian avionics company.
NeST Avionics says it is pursuing commercial possibilities arising from analysing information from black boxes, which record aircraft and engine performance parameters.
Airservices Australia and NeST Avionics recently signed a Memorandum of Co-operation which provides for the joint marketing of software and the establishment of decoding centres in Australia, Asia and the Middle East.
There could be several major spin-offs from the initiative, including the early detection of aircraft faults, and large fuel savings from the analysis of aircraft performance data.
Airservices sales and business development manager Ross De la Rue said black boxes monitored an aircraft's "heartbeat".
"Up till now this data has only been used in a limited way," he said.
"There are two obvious streams of information that can be obtained: information relating to safe performance levels, and also aircraft operational performance levels.
"From, a safety aspect Airservices Australia will be focusing on all data relating to the safe performance of aircraft."
NeST Solutions, the Australian arm of NeSt Avionics, will establish a special decoding centre at Airservices Australia's repair and calibration facility at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport.
"This will make Australia's domestic air services even safer, and a vital commercial spin-off is the millions of dollars that can be saved by airlines using the operational performance data analysed during the decoding process," said NeST Solutions Australian managing director Jacob Cherian.
"What that means is that any issue relating to safety can be identified prior to it ever reaching an emergency situation.
"That particularly applies to essential safe performance indicators, from being able to read things such as engine performance levels."
There was the potential for airlines to save millions of dollars annually, through better fuel consumption and preventative maintenance.
"Being able to read the performance of an aircraft's engines, for example, may lead to preventative maintenance being carried out long before a potential problem becomes a costly critical maintenance issue."
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Software deal to lift the lid of the black boxes
By Geoffrey Thomas
April 16, 2004
MONITORING black boxes to improve aircraft performance and safety is on the radar of the Australian arm of an Indian avionics company.
NeST Avionics says it is pursuing commercial possibilities arising from analysing information from black boxes, which record aircraft and engine performance parameters.
Airservices Australia and NeST Avionics recently signed a Memorandum of Co-operation which provides for the joint marketing of software and the establishment of decoding centres in Australia, Asia and the Middle East.
There could be several major spin-offs from the initiative, including the early detection of aircraft faults, and large fuel savings from the analysis of aircraft performance data.
Airservices sales and business development manager Ross De la Rue said black boxes monitored an aircraft's "heartbeat".
"Up till now this data has only been used in a limited way," he said.
"There are two obvious streams of information that can be obtained: information relating to safe performance levels, and also aircraft operational performance levels.
"From, a safety aspect Airservices Australia will be focusing on all data relating to the safe performance of aircraft."
NeST Solutions, the Australian arm of NeSt Avionics, will establish a special decoding centre at Airservices Australia's repair and calibration facility at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport.
"This will make Australia's domestic air services even safer, and a vital commercial spin-off is the millions of dollars that can be saved by airlines using the operational performance data analysed during the decoding process," said NeST Solutions Australian managing director Jacob Cherian.
"What that means is that any issue relating to safety can be identified prior to it ever reaching an emergency situation.
"That particularly applies to essential safe performance indicators, from being able to read things such as engine performance levels."
There was the potential for airlines to save millions of dollars annually, through better fuel consumption and preventative maintenance.
"Being able to read the performance of an aircraft's engines, for example, may lead to preventative maintenance being carried out long before a potential problem becomes a costly critical maintenance issue."
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