Air France and American Airlines are to test Boeing's Airplane Health Management (AHM) data-monitoring and prognostic service over the next year, as Boeing prepares to make the service available to airlines early in 2004. AHM monitors an aircraft's performance in flight and relays the information in real time to the ground, allowing engineers to make advance preparations for gate-side maintenance. The system is designed to cut dispatch delays by reducing non-routine maintenance, and by identifying recurring faults and trends. Boeing plans to release its AHM service in three phases. Release 1.0 will report fault data from the aircraft's central maintenance computer, release 2.0 will use "snapshots" of systems in operation from the aircraft condition monitoring system, while release 3.0, due out in late 2005, will transmit a continuous stream of data taken during the entire flight.
Source: Flight International
