Story ID: 
Using digital innovations to enhance aircraft availability.
By: Martha Jercinovich
Caption: For nearly 70 years, the Rolls-Royce Business Aviation brand has not only been synonymous with exceptional business aircraft engine performance, reliability, and value, but also with introducing an array of innovative customer-centered service offerings that not only enhance the overall ownership experience but also help achieve their goal of 100% aircraft availability.  
Word Count: 1216
Business aircraft are nothing if not tools that enable companies to capitalize on opportunities wherever they may be found in the world. And if there’s one company that has been at the forefront of enabling these aircraft to travel farther, faster, and with greater reliability, it’s Rolls-Royce.
From the day in 1958 when the company’s RB.53 Dart turboprop powered the first flight of the revolutionary Gulfstream I, the Rolls-Royce family of turbine engines has been the power of choice for a variety of upper-echelon aircraft, including those from Gulfstream, Cessna, Embraer, Bombardier, and now Dassault.
And while the company’s technical innovations are legendary, it has been equally active in pioneering customer-oriented programs and services that make the operation of these aircraft more efficient and cost-effective.
“We invented Power-by-the-Hour coverage and introduced it on the Hawker-Siddeley HS.125 aircraft in 1959,” explains Andy Robinson, Senior Vice President, Customers and Services for Rolls-Royce Business Aviation. “We evolved that into what is now our hugely successful CorporateCare and CorporateCare Enhanced programs with over 2,500 aircraft on the program.”
“And in response to the requests of those customers, CorporateCare Enhanced now covers every Rolls-Royce-supplied item on the engine with no exclusions or limitations for the environment, erosion, or corrosion,” he continues. “Proactively responding to what our customers want is another thing that sets Rolls-Royce Business Aviation apart. Everything we do is in response to our business aviation customers.”
Knowledge is power
It’s a safe bet that right now, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Rolls-Royce-powered business aviation aircraft in the air. And each of those engines has terabytes of stories to tell. The challenge is capturing all of that information.
“We pioneered engine health monitoring (EHM) in the 1980s and have continued to evolve the capability,” Rolls-Royce Business Aviation’s Vice President of Customer Support, James Prater, says. “Our latest innovation is our Engine Vibration Health Monitoring Unit (EVHMU) on our new Pearl family of engines. It’s the next evolution of our continuous data collection concept.”
“The algorithms that our engineers have written can enable the auto-analysis or machine-learning—AI, if you will—to enhance our ability to diagnose and fix issues before they create an AOG situation,” he continues. “It will have a significant impact on improving engine reliability and increasing aircraft availability.”
While collecting the data is critical, the key to turning raw numbers into usable information is creating the digital innovations that put the correct information in the hands of people who know not only the engines but, more importantly, the when’s, where’s, and how’s of the people who operate the aircraft.
“We have a dedicated digital team that works in our 24/7 Aircraft Availability Center in Berlin, who are 100% focused on achieving our customers’ goals,” Robinson adds. “At the heart of that effort is our Operational Service Tool Set. It’s a digital tool that monitors our entire fleet and connects engine health monitoring data with the fleet operational data to create a picture of how our engines are operating.”
Another of Rolls-Royce Business Aviation’s digital innovations Robinson shares is its Engine Network Toolset. “We know every single thing about that engine, all the way back to its original build data. Thousands and thousands of parameter points all coming together in one place to tell a story,” he explains. “We can not only predict the health of that engine but combine it with fleet-wide data to forecast and plan for the need of spare parts, lease engines, and engine maintenance slots in our facilities—all with the goal of improved aircraft availability.”
We can’t allow the lack of a $500 part to AOG a $50M business jet
While the ability to accurately predict where and when you might need a particular spare part may seem inconsequential in the long run, it is, as Rolls-Royce Business Aviation’s global network of Service Centers and CorporateCare spares stores proves daily, a highly valuable customer benefit.
“We developed a set of digital tools seven years ago that are benefiting our customers today. For example, our supply-chain analysis and forecasting have received numerous accolades for us over the past 18 months,” Prater says. “As everyone in the industry is struggling with supply-chain and parts availability issues, we’re not having any service delays caused by a lack of parts or lease engines.”
“It’s a tool we use continually to analyze the frequency of operations within various regions of the world,” adds Robinson. “When we look at the historical reliability of those engines, we can accurately forecast how many of any parts we will need in our 10 global parts store locations to meet the need. Having the parts on hand in each region means faster turns and less downtime for our customers.”
While it may seem that only the newer-generation engines benefit from this data mining, Prater stresses that all this real-time flight information helps the company support every Rolls-Royce turboprop, turbojet, and turbofan engine in operation more efficiently.
“It’s the Rolls-Royce culture we have of, ‘How do we prevent in-service delays for even the older engines?’” he says. “Because we have the Parts Analysis Tool and Stores Tools, we can apply the rationale and synthetically supplement the data for many of the legacy engines with what we do know, and act on that so that parts are available when we need them.”
Where digital innovation gets personal
Prater stresses that it takes a lot more than terabytes of data to create innovations that help Rolls-Royce Business Aviation customers maximize their aircraft’s value—it takes people who can use that information to help customers meet their goals.
“We believe that strong relationships still drive business aviation at every level. DOMs want to speak to a real person and have confidence that their needs are understood and will be addressed in a timely manner,” he says. “Getting information to our field technicians quickly is key. AI can complete a search in seconds that used to take a team three days to complete. That frees our people to respond faster to customers.”
Robinson explains that one of the company’s newest digital innovations is AIRR—Rolls-Royce Business Aviation’s version of ChatGPT. “The Aircraft Availability Center handles around 4,000 events a year, and with AIRR, we can search through all that data in seconds and greatly improve our response times,” he says. “We’re finding it a very beneficial tool for all of our customers, no matter what engines they operate.”
Whether it’s new designs or materials to advance engine performance, efficiency, or reliability, or digital innovations to optimize the analysis and sharing of critical information, Rolls-Royce Business Aviation is committed to continuing to innovate to meet changing customer needs.
“All of our innovations are based on what our customers need and expect. We’re always talking to them to get feedback and addressing concerns,” Robinson says. “The goal of everything we do is to use all of our digital and human resources to deliver a better experience for all of our customers.”