Rockwell Collins and Lufthansa affiliate Condor expect to receive German certification of the Integrated Information System (I2S) by mid-November. Certification, which follows a successful test flight on a Condor A320 in September, will pave the way for the launch of a year-long operational trial of the advanced information management system from next month.
Meanwhile, Rockwell Collins and Condor were demonstrating the system to Lufthansa's fellow Star Alliance members on 4 November with a view to expanding airline involvement in the programme.
Two Condor A320s are already equipped and a third has been wired for I2S, while the rest of the eight-strong A320 fleet will undergo installations from next March.
The Condor Aircraft Integrated Network (CAIN) project, which is in conjunction with Lufthansa, is designed to test technologies linking an aircraft-based intranet to airline terminal area databases. I2S technology offers flight crew, cabin crew, maintenance and passenger in-flight entertainment and communication applications.
The system is designed to simplify the data flow process, reduce the amount of paper required in the cockpit, and improve passenger services and airline efficiency.
Initial applications to be tested include crew e-mail, real-time weather information, intranet access, aircraft maintenance and operations manuals, an electronic technical logbook, flight operation quality assurance and automatic loading of flight management computer database, says Hartmut Doehler, Condor's director of flight operations.
The system includes an aircraft file server connected via a safety interface unit to the aircraft avionics, with a wireless local area network (LAN) onboard the aircraft connected to a terminal area wireless LAN.
The airports of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and Berlin Schoenefeld, Germany, are already equipped, with Leipzig Airport soon to come on line.
Lufthansa, which formalised its involvement in the programme in July, has not equipped its own aircraft for the trial, but is driving the airline application specification.
"Our main goal is to develop a standard before we install it," says Christian Orlowski, Lufthansa's project manager for aircraft systems. He says the airline has had discussions with Airbus regarding I2S on widebody types, including the proposed A3XX.
Carriers including United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Southwest have already requested information ranging from passenger e-mail to the whole system.
Source: Flight International
