A novel approach to remote and real-time aircraft maintenance

Project Information

WISE

Grant agreement ID: 756269

DOI

10.3030/756269

Project closed

EC signature date 3 February 2017

Start date 1 March 2017

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 2 351 250,00

EU contribution

€ 1 645 875,00

Coordinated by

SUNAERO - HELITEST
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - WISE (A novel approach to remote and real-time aircraft maintenance)

Reporting period: 2018-03-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project WISE developed and demonstrated a unique service: the first remote and live expert assistance accessible to aircraft maintenance operators, whatever their location, whatever the type of maintenance or repair operation and whenever needed (24/7 on the wing service). It is expected to disrupt the traditional market of MRO by turning it predictive, expert and accessible to any operator.
The 24-month project addressed five major objectives as set in the DoA:
1. To demo the adaptability of the service to any aircraft maintenance site,
2. To scale up the number of connected sites with the WISE center,
3. To fully engage the stakeholders in the WISE project,
4. To foster market uptake by increasing awareness of the transformative impact of the approach in the aircraft maintenance sector,
5. To maximize value creation from the WISE approach.
On top of it, the WISE project was not only about the demonstration of a disruptive service to the MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) operators but also about the transformation of SUNAERO itself.

It had both a transitional and transformative impact on the company through:
- The digitization of several processes in the company,
- The creation of a service activity focused on expert remote aircraft maintenance,
- The evolution of SUNAERO’s own methods and products to facilitate the growth of this new service activity.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

After 24 months of work, SUNAERO has achieved the all main technical and regulatory steps of the WISE project as at now:
- The technical teams have been focusing on the validation of the different elements, which compose the WISE system. They have validated the prototype system integrated with new communication and optimized maintenance features and certified tools and procedures. Successful performance tests have been carried out to assess the usability of the system in first relevant use cases. The tests enabled to validate the relevance and the compliance of the systems specifications (qualification of equipment, validation of parameters on the field together with several MRO).
- The nature and extend of data and big data to be in the WISE database have been thoroughly defined.
- The WISE database has been designed to provide predictive insights on a large majority of maintenance use cases and is now filled-in with more than 100 missions!
- The Service application guidelines have been issued and all technician trained to use it on the field.
- The regulatory affairs associated with Part145 are followed and managed by an expert, in-house, recruited at the beginning of the project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

In the last decade, the aircraft industry has been facing fundamental maintenance dilemmas:
- Maintenance expertise is missing in more than 21’000 airports worldwide whereas the number of commercial aircrafts on duty is inexorably growing (more than 43,000 aircrafts by 2030 , twice the volume of the current fleet).
- Aircraft On Ground (AoG) for structural maintenance is a persisting financial burden : AOG costs 120 000€ per day to airline companies . Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) operators have to work under time pressure, thus augmenting the risk of defaulting repair.
- Today structural repair on AoG unavoidably requires to bring external experts physically on site. It takes 1 to 2 days for the expert to actually arrive and 2 to 10 additional days to have the aircraft repaired and allowed back in the air. Complex structural repair on AoG (for example composite or engine repair) can even last several weeks because the MRO operator has not been trained to specific non-recurring operations and does not have the proper maintenance equipment in hand.

The level of maintenance skills onsite needs to increase dramatically and rapidly, otherwise the aircraft industry can expect a huge economic loss due to inappropriate structural maintenance on AoG.
The WISE system developed in this project will make it possible to give a remote access to any airport (line maintenance) or MRO site to a maintenance expert center and/or to a knowledge database, whenever needed. The system will have been extensively tested to ensure operation from a remote control center, accessible 24h/7d to instantaneously guide the repair until it is fixed a few hours later (8 hours on average), and tracking all activities done on the field for records and knowledge improvement.

The different elements, which compose the system have been validated. Demonstration phase can start.