A computer about the size of a car stereo promises an end to inflight entertainment dilemmas as well as new solutions to cabin management, whether as a stand-alone unit or coupled seamlessly as an enhancement to existing in-cabin systems.

Running custom software that is described as user-friendly and easily customized to meet customer needs, the Conductor, designed by Van Nuys, California-based Total Aircraft Services (www.tasaircraft.com), allows enhanced access to a variety of digital inflight entertainment as well as routine computer-based tasks such as word processing, e-mail, Internet access, and spreadsheets.

"The system has been flying the past four years on a Gulfstream G-IV and has provided the owner with the type system he wanted most," said TAS marketing director Bo Alksninis. "Never before has there been the kind of options for on-the-go digital content like there now are with the Conductor."

TAS started off years ago as strictly a consulting engineering firm tasked with finding solutions to a variety of aviation-related problems mostly related to upgrades and modifications and customized equipment installations, Alksninis said.

Since then and because of the diversity of projects coming through its front door, TAS has expanded into its own maintenance and modification facility located at Van Nuys, Alksninis said.

Essentially, the Conductor unit is a miniaturized personal computer running mpeg and MP3 data as well as common PC-based office suites, Alksninis said, but a distinctive difference lies in the way the system operates to keep its owners connected to their digital worlds.

"Using wireless technology, the Conductor can link itself to the owner's other [digital devices] such as a home computer or a laptop and either update those devices with what is stored on the Conductor or update itself with what is stored on the home or office PCs and the laptop," Alksninis said.

"The owner can then take with him or her the various contents of their other systems and remain connected to their worlds regardless where they might be."

The Conductor also connects via wireless technology to a passenger's laptop, thus allowing the passenger to take advantage of any entertainment offerings available on the system.

"In this case, say one person is watching a movie, but another passenger wants to watch something different," Alksninis said. "Through wireless technology, a laptop, if set up to receive wireless, can be utilized to watch either a different movie, listen to different music, or have access to other digital data stored on the Conductor.

"Hard-wired jacks are also an option, so a laptop user could simply plug into the network that way if he or she chooses," he added.

While currently aimed at the aviation market, similar units could also be installed in land-based vehicles or the software itself, because it's designed to run on off-the-shelf computers, can run on a home or office PC without any other hardware requirements, Alksninis said.

"Costs in the market are constantly changing, and we're finding some of the off-the-shelf hardware is better than what some of the aviation-only vendors are providing," he said. "If a customer needs DO-160 certification, that can be easily done, but if a customer doesn't require that, there are any number of options available in terms of hardware and costs."

 

NBAA Promoting Reliability Database

The National Business Aviation Association is leading the industry in obtaining quantifiable data on how corporate fleets, as well as individual models, are meeting reliability and maintainability issues, the first time in industry history that such real-time data will become available.

Lending the same credibility it has maintained for years in terms of real-world IFR operational data, NBAA is making available to several MROs and manufacturers a beta test version of its Forum for Enhanced Reliability and Maintainability Standards, or FERMS, with expectations that FERMS will go live via the Internet by late 2004.

FERMS's sole purpose, according to NBAA's director of technical services Eli Cotti, is to provide users real-time data on how dispatch-reliable certain models of corporate and charter aircraft are and what maintenance issues they face and why.

Seen ultimately as an aircraft management tool, FERMS will provide data that can be "mined" in any of several ways to give operators insights into how reliable all the various models of corporate aircraft are as well as to the kinds of maintenance issues they face during their operational lives.

"Never before have aircraft operators had a way of getting real-time data for comparisons of reliability and maintainability issues on corporate aircraft," said Cotti. "The pilots might be aware of how aircraft are holding up and owners might also be somewhat aware of how available their aircraft have been, but there's been nothing in terms of realistic comparison," he said.

Concerns in setting up a program such as FERMS centered on credibility of the data, so NBAA offered to be the repository. "NBAA's reputation for providing credible data of this type has been well established with respect to the IFR operational data it has provided for years," Cotti said. "NBAA is working to establish that same credibility with R&M [reliability and maintainability] data by being the repository. The industry relies on NBAA for impartial presentation of real-time IFR performance information and we believe the industry will likewise depend on NBAA for R&M data as well."

The system is simple. An aircraft shows up for maintenance and technicians input the data into NBAA's FERMS website. A variety of data detailing aircraft type, times, incident details, problems, and resolutions to problems is added to the database.

Cotti said some global definitions will be adopted to clearly define delays, cancellations, and other data points as they apply to R&M issues so that the comparisons and details will be consistent across the fleets.

As aircraft age, histories of reliability and maintainability can be tracked by looking it up in the database and history can be compared to other similar aircraft in the fleet.

"There are a number of ways FERMS can be used as a management tool," Cotti said. "Operators can see precisely how an aircraft type performs in terms of R&M and that can help with decisions in picking the right aircraft for the mission.

"It provides manufacturers with data on problems that might crop up with a specific type, enabling [them] to develop solutions in much shorter times than the typical eight to twenty-four months it usually takes to identify a problem as something more than anecdotal, and form a solution," he said.

Another benefit provided by FERMS from a management point of view, according to Cotti, is that the system could identify procedures enhancing aircraft reliability.

"For example, one operator may be getting, let's say, 100-percent dispatch reliability from his airplane while another operator with the same airplane is only getting 96 percent," Cotti said. "The operator getting 96 percent would go into the database, mine the data from the 100-percent user, and possibly find a way to close that 4-percent gap."

Cotti said he sees FERMS being used more by the corporate world than the airline world because of competition issues.

"Airlines, for the most part, have a system similar to FERMS already in use, but because of the competitive nature of airlines, I don't see airlines using FERMS since it might reveal their methods to their competitors," Cotti said.

"In corporate flying, however, we are all pretty much in the same business and are not really competing against one another in the sense airlines compete against each other," he said.