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Raytheon Pitches for Connected Aviation Ecosystem
There’s an overflow of data especially when it comes to aviation. It comes from passengers tapping their phones to book flights, choose seats and check in. It comes from radars watching the weather and transponders indicating to air traffic controllers which plane is landing or taking off.
Data is splashed from all over the aircraft, with systems and subsystems creating a detailed digital record of the flight – when the brakes come off, when the wheels come up, and even every time an engine valve opens or closes.
Data is splashed from all over the aircraft, with systems and subsystems creating a detailed digital record of the flight – when the brakes come off, when the wheels come up, and even every time an engine valve opens or closes.
Within those billions of data points, Raytheon Technologies experts point out, are patterns, trend lines and prognostics with untapped and extraordinary value – and a key to the future of aviation.
Bringing that information together, analysing it and delivering the insights to the right people at the right time is a concept Raytheon Technologies calls the “connected aviation ecosystem”– the use of data to optimise operations across the industry.
The result, experts insist, will be greater efficiency and smoother operations across the industry.
LeAnn Ridgeway, who is leading the connected aviation ecosystem effort at Collins Aerospace, a Raytheon Technologies business, explained: “We’ve got a lot of independent systems deployed throughout our aviation footprint that don’t talk to each other today. We believe that by working with our customers, we can fuse various data sources and apply smart analytics that will provide value for our customers in terms of operational efficiency and the ability to offer an enhanced passenger experience. This really sets us apart.”
Detailed below are some of the ways Ridgeway and her colleagues are working to bring the connected aviation ecosystem to life – and why they believe it is so crucial to the future of flight.
Benefits for Passengers
ARINC SelfPass biometrics system at Tokyo Haneda Airport deployed by Collins Aerospace is one classic example of how data can make air travel seamless and convenient.
For passengers, a connected aviation ecosystem offers a major advantage of streamlining their travel experience.
The changes would be the most noticeable when passengers arrive at the airport. Biometric technology would allow them to use their facial scan or fingerprint to check in, pass through security and board the plane without even having to present an ID.
“We can use data to provide a more personalised experience – one that’s more seamless,” stated Nancy Welsh, director of marketing for Information Management Services at Collins Aerospace.
The benefits of better data analysis extend beyond check-in and boarding. At the airports, it could direct passengers to alternate security checkpoints if one is getting too crowded. Vendors in the food court could predict demand and plan accordingly; if a fast-food chain knows it has an unusually high number of customers coming in at a certain time, the manager could schedule a second cashier and stock more of the items those customers are likely to order.
When cabin crews have real-time access to data – as they do, with a Collins product called CabinConnect – it allows them to better serve their customers.
On the ground, the passenger apps could provide a map of the terminal and show the fastest path to baggage claim, a connecting flight or ground transportation.
All that information needs a way to get from the air to the ground and back. Collins has more than 90 years of experience in that realm, beginning with voice communications via VHF and HF radios and evolving to a full portfolio of high-speed communication pathways.
Today, through the ARINC Global Network – which routes more than 75 million messages a day between aircraft, airline operators, air traffic controllers and ancillary businesses like fuel providers, caterers and ground handlers – Collins is not only moving the data but helping customers figure out what it means and how to act on it.
Collins is investing in hardware, services and applications in five areas:
• Cabin and cargo operations.
• Flight operations and maintenance data.
• Electronic flight bag, or the digital version of pilots’ flight management documents.
• Media delivery, or the updating of navigation database files.
• Prevention of delays and cancellations, sometimes known as “irregular operations.”
Air Traffic Management
Better use of data could help in greater management of air traffic – even in the face of something as uncontrollable as the weather.
Analysing air traffic control data will play a vital role in what’s known as “four-dimensional trajectory,” or 4DT, which will allow air traffic controllers to manage flights based on where they will be at a certain time – not merely where they are at the moment.
The plane sat on the tarmac in Washington, D.C., for three hours, waiting for the weather to clear. Not there, and not in its destination of Chicago, but 180 miles to the southeast in Indianapolis.
Every time Kip Spurio hears that kind of story – his daughter-in-law was on the flight – it reminds him why he and his colleagues are working on a way to make long, frustrating weather delays a thing of the past – or at least far less common.
It’s called 4DT, and its widespread use would fundamentally change the way air traffic management works, according to Spurio, the technical director of air traffic systems for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a Raytheon Technologies business.
As of now, air traffic controllers use a plane’s real-time altitude, longitude and latitude to keep it a safe distance from bad weather, and from other aircraft. With 4DT, they’ll add the dimension of time into those calculations – enabling them to separate aircraft based not just on where they are, but on where they will be at any point in their flight.
4DT, Spurio said, would improve decision-making at places like the Federal Aviation Administration‘s (FAA) Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Warrenton, Virginia, where controllers manage the flow of thousands of flights across the U.S. National Airspace System. They monitor and respond to changes in capacity, such as runway closures; airspace restrictions such as an Air Force One flight; equipment outages on the ground, and, weather.
“They have to have all the information – what airports are available, what the landing rate at Chicago is. They have to know all that. But because their systems aren’t set up to do things based on a 4DT, their remedies to problems in the system are fairly coarse,” Spurio said.
That is why, according to him, his daughter-in-law’s plane sat on the ground for so long.
Predictive Maintenance
Data from aircraft systems such as engines can help airline operators predict when their fleet will require maintenance and schedule it at the best possible times and places.
One way to predict maintenance is through analysis of engine data.
At Pratt & Whitney, a Raytheon Technologies business, Arun Srinivasan leads strategic planning for engine health digital services supporting commercial engines. One of his main duties is to show customers how analysing data from the assortment of sensors on an engine – Pratt & Whitney’s GTF engine, for example, can generate 4 million data points per flight and can tell them days in advance when they’ll need to fix or replace a part. That kind of notice allows for better planning; operators can even schedule those repairs in the best locations – a major airport with a hangar and plenty of mechanics, rather than a remote outpost.
Srinivasan explained: “My goal is to ensure engines are ready so that pilots and passengers have a good flight. We aim to minimise operational disruptions and avoid announcements such as, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to have a delay because something’s gone wrong.’”
The data can come from throughout the flight, or from certain phases – and it helps paint a strong digital picture of the engine’s health. That picture will become even clearer and more useful in optimising operations as more data is unlocked from engines, and as adoption grows of technologies such as Pratt & Whitney’s Advanced Diagnostics and Engine Monitoring data analytics platform.
Similar to the work Pratt is doing with engines, Collins Aerospace is using its Ascentia platform to predict maintenance needs across the aircraft. Through statistical analysis, machine learning and modelling, the Ascentia platform analyses flight operations and maintenance data, predicts the health of the aircraft and its Collins-made components, and prescribes the best course of action for everything it monitors.
Collins data scientists and product engineers deliver those recommendations to customers, validating the information and helping plan the next steps.
Stronger Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity experts at Raytheon Technologies are collaborating to protect the data and the networks that underpin the aviation ecosystem.
Raytheon Technologies’ experts are working to bring greater cybersecurity in aviation in three ways: by embedding it throughout the development and lifecycle of products and services; by independently testing and analysing the products and services their colleagues create; and by collaborating across the industry to develop long-term, big-picture standards and guidance.
“If you think about security, it’s layered. There are many protection levels,” said Linda Peyton, who oversees cybersecurity of products at Collins Aerospace. Part of her role is to collaborate with colleagues at the company’s Cyber Operations, Development and Evaluation (CODE) Center, a cybersecurity test range where in-house experts analyse what teams across the company create.
“We tear into and security pressure-test everything from jet engines and avionics to components supporting missiles and satellites,” said Brian Witten, a Raytheon Technologies vice president, chief product security officer and the head of the CODE Centre.
But there’s more to cybersecuring aviation systems than combing through lines of code, picking apart products and locking them away in echo-proof chambers for radio-frequency testing. There’s significant work under way to create the standards and practices that guide the industry. Collins has taken a leadership role in organisations that produce such standards and guidance.
In Witten’s words: “We, our partners and so much of the industry are working together to not only protect the aircraft and their components, but also the ground support equipment and global networks connecting the aircraft to airlines and air traffic control around the world.”
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