Embraer is planning to proceed to the next phase of its advanced health monitoring system by the year-end.
JetBlue and Republic Airways' subsidiaries, flying E-190s and E-170s respectively, this year began testing the new Embraer programme to monitor the health of their E-Jet fleets in what Embraer terms as "Phase Zero".
Dubbed AHeAD (aircraft, health analysis and diagnosis), the programme in this phase sends data via the aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS) to a base for examination when the aircraft is at roughly 15,000ft in approach mode.
Antonio Campello, senior programme manager for E-170/E190 aircraft, says that the programme will commence "Phase One" by the end of December on JetBlue aircraft using real time transmission data, allowing continuous fault diagnostics to better anticipate and therefore shorten maintenance intervals.
The programme will evolve into a system that monitors the life of components and structures and become a complete health monitoring system under a prognostic "Phase Two" which Campello says is a "very sophisticated" system.
Source: Flight International
