The Boeing Company¹s recently launched e-business website myboeingfleet.com now offers airline customers 32 times more content, thanks to the addition of a huge volume of data on 1 July.
The additional content, totalling more than 1.5 terabytes of data, includes millions of engineering drawings for almost all Boeing and Douglas commercial jetliners.
The 1.5 terabytes of data are equivalent to digitising the content of three million books of 350 pages each. One terabyte equals 1,000 gigabytes.
Besides the engineering drawings, other content added to the myboeingfleet.com portal includes searchable parts lists, more than 11,000 component maintenance/overhaul manuals and a fleet status report known as the Boeing FLEET TEAM Digest. "This moves us very close to the day when our customers can get all the information they need to maintain and operate their Boeing fleets through a single Internet portal," says Barb Claitman, director of e-Business for Boeing Commercial Aviation Services.
The drawings and the other new additions are perfect complements to the information Boeing began providing via myboeingfleet.com when the portal was launched in May. "The initial offerings included service bulletins, service letters, major maintenance manuals, master minimum equipment lists, and many other documents. We will continue to grow the portal as a platform for expanded support and services," Claitman says. Boeing first provided online access to the engineering drawings in 1995 through a client/server-based system that required user training and specialised computing hardware and network connections.
Traditionally, airlines relied on cumbersome "aperture cards" to store and retrieve engineering drawings, which are essential for repairing and maintaining airplanes.
Larger airlines were the primary users of the online system Boeing began offering in 1995, while most smaller carriers continued to rely on aperture cards. Now, with the drawings available through a single Web portal, using the drawings will be easier for all airlines that sign up for access. A key feature of myboeingfleet.com is its use of personalisation technology, allowing users to customise the portal's content. Secure and password protected, the portal also provides access to the Boeing PART Page, a business-to-business Web site allowing Boeing customers to order and track spare parts shipments.
Source: Flight Daily News
