Leading European engineering and aircraft completions specialist Lufthansa Technik is here as a guest of Germany's Hanse Aerospace (Hall 4, H11), spotlighting its impressive Airbus A380 support capabilities but also showing some of the advanced cabin systems now pouring out of its Innovation Centre "skunk works"
Foundation of the Hamburg-based Innovation Centre's work is the ethernet-based NICE cabin network. Flying in a pair of Boeing BBJs and a 747-400, it is currently being installed in another two 747-400s. With NICE available as the backbone, LHT is introducing a full range of cabin capabilities to exploit the network's powerful data-transport performance.
Star of the range is the Mobile Access Router (MAR), designed to intelligently select the most appropriate and economical of the aircraft's air-ground communications links at any given time. LHT is about to ship the first unit for the launch customer, which plans to equip 12 aircraft.
"There are more orders in the pipeline," says Innovation Centre chief Andrew Muirhead. "We think MAR compares very well with the competition, which generally can't match our spread of capabilities, and we expect to see demand go berserk in the third quarter of the year."
Primary
Inmarsat satcoms is one of the primary communications means that MAR can accommodate. It already works with Danish manufacturer Thrane & Thrane's Aero-HSD+ high-speed data terminal and is now being integrated with comparable products from Honeywell and Rockwell Collins.
LHT is also talking to the other manufacturers of Inmarsat Swift-family avionics, EMS Satcom, Chelton Satcom and Thales Avionics. The Swift family of services comprises today's Swift64, delivering 64kbit/sec per channel, and the 432kbit/sec SwiftBroadband, to be introduced at the end of next year. MAR is SwiftBroadband-ready.
Recent MAR developments include the addition of a file server, data compression capability to boost throughput over the Inmarsat system, and an upgrade to 54Mbit/sec 802.11g WiFi for both the onboard wireless LAN and gatelink applications on the ground. The gatelink - LHT calls it "The Bridge" - is available for passenger use, allowing them to log on to airport WiFi hotspots as soon as the aircraft has landed, and for aircraft operational applications.
Future MAR enhancements include voice-over-IP capability - to be available by the end of the year, according to Muirhead - and the addition within the next six to nine months of UMTS broadband cellular for gatelink purposes.
Other recent Innovation Engineering products include a wireless access point (WAP), the AirTrack moving-map system (in conjunction with TEAC Aerospace of the USA), an audio/video-on-demand inflight entertainment server for corporate aircraft, and airworthy high-definition television (HDTV) LCD displays.
The WAP has been FAA-certificated and deliveries to the first customers - two North American operators with a total of 13 aircraft - have begun. Offering 54mbit/sec WiFi, it can support virtual LANs - multiple simultaneous wireless LANs using the same frequencies on one aircraft - and accommodate the most advanced wireless security protocols, including WiFi Protected Access (WPA) V2.
Attacked
Introduced last year by German low-cost airline Air Berlin, the AirTrack second-generation moving map has just attracted another customer. The system will be retrofitted to 30 aircraft this year and is due to go on 10 new aircraft on the line. A further 10 units are on option.
LHT also expects shortly to announce another two deals covering 100 aircraft plus 50 options. Air Berlin was due to complete a 37-aircraft fleet fit by the end of last month.
Current AirTrack enhancements include a new terrain database, addition of virtual airport walkthroughs from ATV Wayfinder, and improvements to the configuration tool, used by the aircraft operator to manipulate aspects of content such as branding, advertising and points-of-interest information.
"Air Berlin loves this capability," says Muirhead. "It's another example of how this product is just getting better and better."
LHT's AVOD server is designed to give operators of corporate/VIP aircraft from the Bombardier Challenger upwards an IFE capability comparable with that now being introduced by the leading airlines. Packaged in a 4MCU box, the system can deliver up to 12 channels of MPEG-2/4 video-on-demand via exceptionally compact seatboxes to in-seat screens. It can also record live in-flight TV for later playback.
First installation is destined for a 747-400. "We'll offer it as a product in the fourth quarter of this year," says Muirhead. "There is competition in this area, but it's COTS and clunky."
The Innovation Centre's brainchildren are expected to figure prominently once Lufthansa Technik's revolutionary new Project U aircraft interior design methodology gets into full commercial gear.
Introduced at NBAA 2004 in Las Vegas last year and due to be formally launched as a product in New Orleans this October, Project U is intended to draw aircraft owners into the interior design process as far as possible to produce an outcome that reflects their requirements and tastes. Along the way, it could have the potential to turn ideas about what is possible in aircraft cabin design completely on their heads.
"We're aiming to co-operate with big-name design companies in order to raise the look and feel of aircraft interiors to a whole new level," says project leader Jan Nieberle. "We're going out to recruit the very best in the world."
Worldwide
First aboard is Conran & Partners, known worldwide for its expertise in consumer goods and the theming of hotels, restaurants and apartment buildings. "They will advise us on lifestyles and living space," says Nieberle.
Other Project U players include Dutch company Philips Design, responsible for the high-technology projectors used to produce the "big window" effects seen in early Project U visual concepts. "We think this, rather than electronic wallpaper, is the way to go," Nieberle says. "With electronic wallpaper there may be heat-release problems that would rule out certification."
First application of the Project U method could be a VVIP Airbus A380. Lufthansa Technik and Airbus presented their ideas for the very last word in rich men's toys at last month's EBACE show in Geneva last month, unveiling a 3.7m-long, one-twentieth-scale model of the megajumbo in super-luxurious head-of-state configuration.
The big model's plexiglass fuselage panels revealed a layout that included bedrooms and a conference room. Other potential layouts could feature an upper deck given over to the owner's private quarters and other accommodation and a lower deck fitted out with offices and support functions.
BRENDAN GALLAGHER
Source: Flight Daily News
