Thales Strengthens Airbus A380 Support

Thales Avionics and three other companies involved in the Airbus A380 program-namely Diehl Avionik Systeme, Liebherr Aerospace, and Zodiac IN-Services-have formed a joint venture dubbed OEM Services. The companies aim to share common resources when setting up a customer support network, and Thales has also endeavored to improve inflight entertainment (IFE) system reliability, so far widely seen as insufficient.

Thales and its partners all need to have field representatives in every airport where the A380 will stop. "There will be around 550 passengers in the A380, this can make a lot of grumblers," said Franck Hebert, Thales Avionics's vice-president for customer support and services. But the small size of the fleet makes it difficult to recoup the costs of a full-size after-sales network. Hence the idea of rationalizing the network by offering operators a single point of contact for several equipment manufacturers. OEM Services will provide A380 operators with maintenance, support, and logistics services. The joint-venture is open to other partners and its scope will probably be extended to other Airbus models.

The 550 inflight entertainment (IFE) terminals aboard the A380 may present a unique reliability challenge. IFE reliability is not a safety-critical issue and competition pushes airlines into always asking for the latest in IFE, contradicting the need for system maturity. Can't this result in poor cabin equipment reliability? "We have implemented the methods we use in avionics into IFE system development," Hebert explained. Asked how IFE design teams can learn avionics methods, Hebert added, "we have taken advantage of having the IFE unit integrated to Thales Avionics's air transport branch." The IFE unit is based in Irvine, California but the Toulouse location has IFE activity, too.

In previous programs, maturity was reached after two or three years of operations. "On the A380, we have a much higher objective as we want IFE equipment to be mature right from entry into service," Hebert said. Therefore, development methods have been strengthened. "We now use score cards for each major step," he explained. Moreover, to make the IFE system more reliable, Thales IFE designers have "gone beyond specifications in terms of heat resistance, toughness, and bus-congestion impact," he noted. ATEC test benches have been used from the design phase to validate the equipment and even validate test software. However, Hebert acknowledged that reaching the target level in maturity implies limiting the choice offered to the customer. "We have to resist the temptation of offering the very latest thing in IFE," he said.

On the A380, Thales offers the TopSeries i-5000, which includes on-demand video and music, games, moving maps, and broadband internet service, depending on the aircraft's connection. Delivery of the first shipset is underway at Airbus's Hamburg completion facility in Germany. Installation will be completed by July 2005 and the i-5000 will be the first IFE system to fly on the 550-seater, Thales claims. Singapore Airlines is the A380 launch operator, with an entry into service pegged for April 2006. Some Thales people are already on the final assembly line in Toulouse to supervise electronic equipment delivery for the first production-standard A380 and there will also be Thales employees in Hamburg for the completion process. -- By Thierry Dubois