The airliner passenger cabin and the flightdeck are getting closer technologically. No longer are capabilities exclusively designed for the cockpit, with applications increasingly being found in the cabin - and vice versa. This convergence of technology looks set to increase into the new century.
At the same time, airborne communications - for passengers, cabin crew and cockpit crew - will continue the move from voice to data, mirroring developments on the ground. Just as Internet/intranet and datalink technologies have revolutionised terrestrial communications, they are beginning to do the same in the airborne environment.
Traditional cockpit avionics manufacturers are moving into the cabin, eager to benefit from the explosion in the passenger communication and entertainment business and to meet airline requirements for advanced information management systems for the entire aircraft. They aim to offer airline operators of the 21st century complete information solutions.
Rockwell Collins was the first manufacturer to recognise the potential synergies between the needs of the airliner cockpit and passenger cabin when it purchased in-flight entertainment (IFE) hardware manufacturer Hughes-Avicom International in 1997. The acquisition has allowed Collins to bring its traditional expertise in cockpit avionics together with the IFE and onboard file-server experience of the former Hughes-Avicom.
"We are working very closely with our avionics division in areas that make sense," says Neal Keating, general manager of Rockwell Collins Passenger Systems. "IFE is the most dynamic part of our business. Internet-based and network technologies are all extending around IFE. These are the real growth areas. This is where we can combine Rockwell's activities."
Sextant, meanwhile, is also applying its expertise in flight-critical avionics to the passenger cabin through its recently formed Sextant In-Flight Systems division. The French manufacturer, which moved into in-flight entertainment last year with the purchase of B/E Aerospace's IFE division, is investigating future links between the cockpit and the cabin. Communications technology, data handling concepts and wireless local area network (LAN) technologies are all being explored as possible links between the front and back of the airliner.
Sextant is aiming for modularity, commonality, redundancy and ultimately the integration of cockpit and cabin system technologies. "There is a great benefit to being 100%-owned by Sextant, it is an opportunity to integrate Sextant technologies. A lot of technology transfer has taken place," says Hank Evers, vice-president of sales and marketing at Sextant In-Flight Systems.
Alliance progress
Honeywell is progressing to the passenger cabin through an alliance with leading IFE system supplier Matsushita. The alliance, to develop and market "total aircraft avionics", combines the US manufacturer's avionics and communications experience with the Japanese firm's IFE products. "We're aiming squarely at one of the major growth areas in aviation electronics: information management and cabin electronics to support passenger communications and entertainment," says Larry Bowe, director of Honeywell's Aviation Services business. The partners aim to provide a "total aircraft information system solution" for airlines.
"We envisage connectivity extending a passenger's entertainment and work options from the home or office to the aircraft. Essentially, anything a passenger can do on the ground is going to be available at 30,000ft [9,150m]," says Bowe. Honeywell's aim is to provide "a totally integrated system with enhanced capabilities that will meet airline and passenger needs well into the next millennium", he adds.
E-mail and direct-broadcast satellite television, both of which are must-have technologies in the passenger cabin at the start of the new century, are the first products of the alliance. In-flight e-mail will allow passengers to send electronic mail from their laptops, and eventually the IFE equipment, via an onboard server to a ground-based server that connects to ground communication networks. The service will also be used by crew members for operational messages such as flight routeing information, passenger manifests, onboard inventory requirements, maintenance data or other status reports.
"The trend on the ground is for data transmission and this will also be the bulk of the traffic in the air. These developments will also open a whole range of cockpit applications," says Alam Gill, of UK telecommunication giant BT's Aeronautical division. Long active in passenger and crew communications, BT is developing in-flight e-mail and Internet-based services, exploiting its experience on the ground to bring such services to passengers and crew.
Even aeronautical communications specialist ARINC, more traditionally linked with cockpit activities, is moving into passenger services through an alliance with BT. "IFE is a new and a big focus for us. We are expanding our communication services, offering a complete package from the cockpit to the cabin," says Pamela Ellison, director of data communications.
Collins' Integrated Information System (I²S) is perhaps the clearest pointer to airline operational communications of the future. The company's vision is of the airliner as a mobile information platform, collecting and distributing operational, maintenance, safety, administrative, entertainment and passenger information. Collins' I²S is aimed at providing a fully integrated, end-to-end communication solution that connects aircraft applications to ground networks.
Airbus trial
A year-long operational trial of I²S technologies was to begin at the end of 1999, involving eight Airbus A320s operated by Lufthansa affiliate Condor. The flight trials are part of the Condor Aircraft Integrated Network programme, designed to test technologies linking an aircraft-based intranet to airline databases. I²S uses a high data-rate wireless gatelink on the ground, and VHF, HF and satellite communications when airborne, to connect with the airline's network.
The system is designed to simplify the data flow, reduce the amount of paper in the cockpit, and improve passenger services and airline efficiency. "With the existing flow of information in an airline there is too much data transferred by too many systems. We have to simplify this process," says Hartmut Doehler, Condor director of flight operations.
A huge range of applications are envisaged for I²S-based systems, including those for the flightcrew, cabin crew, maintenance operations and passenger entertainment and communications. "You can create applications whenever and wherever you want, specific to the airline," says Doehler.
On the flightdeck, Rockwell expects that I²S will give pilots immediate access to graphical weather updates, electronic logbooks and an electronic library, providing data to support the use of advanced flight systems and new flight techniques, including dynamic routeing, controlled time of arrival and variable speed control. Future capabilities will include electronic charts, moving maps and the uploading of navigation databases, says Collins.
In the cabin, crew will have instant access to the passenger manifest, individual passenger profiles and itineraries, duty free information, the cabin logbook, checklists and stores management data. The passenger's flying experience will be improved through new IFE features, including live television, shopping, gaming, e-mail and Internet/intranet-based applications. The system will allow airlines to load digitally movies and programming at the gate, eliminating the need to carry tapes loaded with IFE content, says Collins.
Ground crews will have access to flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) and maintenance information, including engine trend and performance data. Collins believes that, through better management and co-ordination of information between the ground and the aircraft, operational costs can be reduced by minimising disruptions.
Initial applications to be tested in the Condor flight trials include crew e-mail, weather information, intranet access, electronic access to aircraft maintenance and operations manuals, an electronic technical logbook, FOQA and automatic loading of flight management computer database, says Doehler.
The I²S system comprises a secure interface, file server, wireless gatelink and printer, with a portable microwave airborne unit providing the flightcrew with onboard wireless connectivity. The system is built around commercial Pentium processors and the Windows NT operating system. The file server is connected via the secure interface to the aircraft avionics, with a wireless LAN on board the aircraft connected to a wireless LAN on the ground.
Integrated system
"This advanced integrated information management system is becoming a reality and it will soon become a must-have solution,'' says Steven Piller, vice-president and general manager of Collins' air transport systems business. I²S is one of the company's major growth initiatives for the future. The manufacturer has invested $20-30 million in the programme over the past two years. This is expected to "grow dramatically" over the next few years.
"Significant" investments have also been made by the Lufthansa group companies involved in the project. Lufthansa itself signed a co-operation agreement with Rockwell in July to develop I²S electronics, software applications and ground infrastructure. Although the German flag carrier has not equipped its own aircraft for the trial, it is driving the airline application specification. "Our primary goal is to develop a standard before we install it in our aircraft," says Christian Orlowski, project manager for aircraft systems at Lufthansa. The airline is talking to Airbus about applications on future aircraft, including the proposed A3XX, he says.
"I believe that within the next 10 years the whole industry will be working with this system or systems like it," says Condor's Doehler. "The system will be the main basis for communications in the near future, completely integrated in the airline industry." I²S has already attracted interest from Delta, United, Qantas and Singapore. Collins expects airlines to come on line from mid-2000.
Gatelink-type communications, an important element of Collins' integrated communication solution, offer huge potential in the 21st century. As airline data requirements rise, communications links such as VHF become too congested and other technologies, such as satellite communications (satcoms), remain too slow or expensive. Gatelink-type technologies are one solution.
Honeywell and airline communications specialist SITA are among those at the early stage of gatelink activities. British Airways will equip two Boeing 747-400s from March 2000 for a SITA-led gatelink programme, also involving Rockwell Collins and Penny & Giles. The project initially will involve the transfer of flight recorder and IFE data between the aircraft and London Heathrow Terminal Four via a wireless LAN.
"Gatelink is another pipe, another opportunity to get much more data to and from aircraft, so we are looking at it," says SITA marketing director Gérard Collin. "There is a large demand for wideband services. There is a huge data demand to and from the aircraft, just as there is on the ground."
As part of its plans for a gate-to-gate approach to air traffic management in the 21st century, European air navigation organisation Eurocontrol has identified wireless datalink communication systems for future applications.
At the start of 1999, Eurocontrol launched a study of wireless technology, led by the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency and involving Aerospatiale Matra, Condor, Collins and SITA. The results are to be presented in February. At that time, a draft programme for the implementation of wireless aircraft communication systems (gatelink) to support air traffic services (ATS) will be outlined, says Eurocontrol.
Wireless system map
The group is identifying systems operating in the 117GHz band which would relieve pressure on the heavily congested VHF aeronautical band. The aim is to propose a roadmap for the implementation of wireless systems at airports. "There is a lot of interest from airlines in these systems to provide a means of communications for all AOC [aeronautical operational control] applications," says Philippe Renaud of Eurocontrol's communication division.
Although Eurocontrol's principal interest is in ATS applications and in reducing the congested VHF band, its study is looking at all applications in order to make a complete business case for users, says Renaud. Airport applications being studied include apron data communications, cargo tracking and tracing, baggage reconciliation, and control and co-ordination of ground handling staff, vehicles and equipment. ATS applications being considered are the automatic terminal information service (ATIS), slot allocation and collaborative decision-making. "Our aim would be to get a small part of the pipe for ATS applications to reduce VHF congestion," Renaud says.
Aeronautical datalink communications is nothing new, but is widely considered likely to be the most influential avionics technology of the new century. The aircraft communications addressing and recording system (ACARS), using VHF communications, has served the industry well, with satellite and HF networks plugging the holes in oceanic and remote airspace. But ACARS via VHF radio is reaching its limits and the early years of the 21st century will see the implementation of new VHF datalink (VDL) networks, capable of handling the huge airline data requirements.
Today, more than 6,000 aircraft are equipped with ACARS, with ARINC carrying more than 15 million messages a month, according to Graham Lake, vice-president air/ground services. Initially, only non-time-critical applications, such as pre-departure clearances or ATIS messages were sent over datalink, but today ATC functions such as automatic dependent surveillance position reports and controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC) are routinely exchanged over ACARS.
The huge growth in ACARS messages is not just down to the expanding aircraft fleet, says Lake. "This expansion is explained by the increasingly 'digital' nature of the modern aircraft. The latest generation of airliners have digital navigation, digital flight controls, digital engine controls, even digital IFE systems," he says.
Aeronautical datalink use will continue to grow over the next 20 years, says Lake. To cope with growing data demands, ARINC and SITA are upgrading their networks to VDL Mode 2, selected as the next generation aeronautical datalink for AOC and ATS messages. VDL-2 will provide a 31.5kbit/s data rate per channel, compared to VHF ACARS' 2.4kbit/sc, along with an upgrade path later in the century to the aeronautical telecommunications network. This will integrate aeronautical networks in a seamless and interoperable Internet for reliable end-to-end communications.
Datalinks are seen as the solution to growing voice frequency capacity problems, as well as a means of improving the quality of ATC services. Into the new century, datalink communications, whether via satcoms, VDL or any other means, will increasingly be used for routine pilot-controller communications. This is being demonstrated in the ground-breaking Preliminary Eurocontrol Test of Air/Ground Data Link (PETAL) programme. PETAL II, launched in 1998 to validate datalinks in an operational ATC environment, follows on from PETAL I, which demonstrated controller-pilot datalink communications via VHF using ACARS equipment and the SITA communications network.
PETAL II is focusing on using datalink communications to reduce congestion on radio frequencies and to lighten the workload associated with voice communications in congested airspace. The programme is testing three communication networks: the North European ADS-B Network (NEAN) using an early VDL Mode 4 infrastructure; the satcom-based future air navigation system (FANS-1); and the ATN using VDL-2.
Congested communications
The first flight under the programme, involving a Lufthansa 747 en route from Frankfurt to Miami in April 1998, was the first commercial flight in revenue operations to use CPDLC for routine ATC communications in congested en route airspace. Today, the trial involves 150-200 flights a month using CPDLC to communicate with the Maastricht centre, says Rob Mead, Eurocontrol's PETAL trials manager. Lufthansa and SAS 747s and SAS McDonnell Douglas DC-9s use the NEAN network, while 70 747s and Boeing 777s operated by United, Continental, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand and Qantas routinely communicate with Maastricht controllers via the FANS datalink. Airbus A340 family aircraft will participate in the trials from early this year.
Maastricht controllers are using datalink to issue voice frequency change instructions, altitude assignments, headings, route changes, speed restrictions and other routine ATC messages, with voice as back-up.
The programme is set to progress to its third phase, using the ATN, in May 2000, using prototype Rockwell Collins equipment on an American Airlines Boeing 767, says Mead. Operational trials are planned for the end of 2001. American's 767s will participate in a similar datalink operational trial in Miami.
Eurocontrol "has learned an awful lot" from the operational trials, says Mead. The European air navigation agency is evaluating input from pilots and controllers on the impact of datalinking on their workload and working environment. In general, the programme has found the operational concept to be sound, he says.
Datalinking is providing precise clearance exchanges while reducing voice communications workload. Cockpit crews, in particular, "appreciate that we are moving ahead with datalink", says Mead. The major drawbacks uncovered concern human-machine interface issues, on the airborne and controller sides, he says, and this area is receiving special focus before any operational decisions are made.
The PETAL II programme is a cornerstone of Eurocontrol's Link2000+ programme to implement operational datalink service in Europe. The organisation's programme document, expected to be presented to Eurocontrol's council in April, will be supported by a business case for the implementation of datalink services on the continent.
Datalink implementation in Europe is vital in the early years of this century as voice frequency capacity limits are expected to be reached around 2006. In addition, air traffic management measures identified by Eurocontrol in its ATM-2000+ plan, designed to increase the capacity of European airspace, require datalink as an enabler.
The US Federal Aviation Administration, meanwhile, hopes to co-ordinate its datalink decision with that of Europe, to produce worldwide standards, and will look to the European business case to help it justify future datalink investments. In the USA, as in Europe, developments such as datalinking are vital to avoid aviation gridlock.
Source: Flight International
