GE Digital has joined the partnership formed in 2019 between Airbus and Delta TechOps called the aviation Digital Alliance in a move that will double the grouping’s analytics and parts scope and develop more ways to curb operational disruptions. Under the expanded alliance, GE will contribute its systems engineering expertise and predictive analytics to the Airbus Skywise open data platform and Delta’s related predictive models.
Speaking Wednesday during an Airbus-hosted online briefing on the tie-up, GE Digital general manager Andrew Coleman explained that his company will contribute analytics for eight aircraft systems listed in the ATA (Air Transport Association) 100 numbering system for commercial aircraft maintenance. They consist of air conditioning and pressurization (ATA 21), flight controls (ATA 27), fuel systems (ATA 28), hydraulics (ATA 29), pneumatics (ATA 36), landing gear (ATA 32), auxiliary power units (ATA 49), and thrust reversers (ATA 78).
“We've been walking the same hallways and honestly solving a lot of the same problems, but not combining our strengths,” said Coleman. “Airbus put a lot of thought over many years into how to make the Skywise platform incredibly easy for anybody and everybody to get data into, and then make sense of it...not that long ago you needed an IT department, a consultant, someone that had that digital deep knowledge. And so we've frankly democratized getting to the data. Once the data is there, then the magic starts to happen as to what you can do with that data.”
Airbus head of customer digital solutions Lionel Rouby added that the partnership will first concentrate on monitoring messages from the aircraft and collecting analytics to predict failure. Each partner, he said, contributes its own analytics developed over time to enlarge the coverage of the failure model. “So the advantage of being together with Delta and GE is that we have our own type of analytics…And thanks to the alliance, we are putting all of them together,” he explained.
From Delta TechOps’ perspective, the means to predict systems failures before they occur with a high level of accuracy also allows for reduced parts inventory, for example. “If we know what parts are going to fail, we don't need to stock quite as many,” explained Delta TechOps senior vice president Don Mitacek. “We can route airplanes to the locations where the spare parts are. And it is a better and more reliable solution for not only Delta Air Lines, but our third-party customers as well, where we can build inherent reliability based off of data analysis.”
To support the growth of the aviation Digital Alliance, Airbus has established a dedicated team of data scientists, customer experience designers, and software developers based in Atlanta to work closely with Delta TechOps and GE Digital.