Airbus, Boeing Expand Digital Commercial Airliner Cockpit Applications and Services

Inside Airbus and Boeing, the world's two largest commercial airplane makers, a key trend that has helped expand digital innovation within the latest cockpit configurations available on their newest airframes has been the expansion of the electronics and services divisions of both companies. The two OEMs have also heavily expanded the suite of cloud-based data capturing and analyzing algorithms, applications, and reporting mechanisms.

This trend can be easily observed in some of the new capabilities and applications that the services divisions of the two companies have rolled out over the last year. Airbus, for example, during the 2022 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, introduced the first digital elements of its new commercial aviation ecosystem, “Airspace Link,” which the airframe manufacturer describes as a digital backbone that streamlines the connectivity, services, and application data management necessary to create innovative new approaches to in-flight entertainment and connectivity for airlines.

The Toulouse-based commercial aircraft OEM’s digital flight data services subsidiary, NAVBLUE, has also been leading the charge in enhancing the way Airbus pilots use tablet electronic flight bag (EFB) applications throughout all phases of flight. The existence of NAVBLUE as a subsidiary under Airbus, and Jeppesen and now Foreflight under the Global Services division of Boeing, has enabled both companies to make significant advancements in the way they connect EFBs to valuable data that resides within avionics databus networks. In fact, both Airbus and Boeing now have given airlines the option of providing pilots with tablet applications and services that are capable of displaying the exact same information available in their forward-looking displays within the tablet itself.

When reached for comments on the newest digital applications and services available in their latest in-production commercial airliner cockpits, Airbus was unable to respond.

In an emailed statement to Avionics International, a representative for Boeing Global Services provided some examples of how their Jeppesen tablet applications are able to connect to a range of commercial airliner flight management systems featured on various in-production Boeing aircraft models.

“Aircraft Interface Device (AID) integration provides connectivity to devices that broker information from aircraft systems through databus standards such as ARINC 429 and 616. FliteDeck Pro and Aviator can connect to those devices to receive aircraft position and altitude information along with other characteristics such as fuel remaining, and ADS-B traffic and weather, for certain systems,” the representative said.

According to BGS, Jeppesen FliteDeck Pro and Aviator are compatible with aircraft interface and server devices on Boeing aircraft from “CMC, FreeFlight, Teledyne, Boeing Onboard Network Server (ONS), Collins, Navaero, and ForeFlight Sentry devices.”

Jeppesen has also published a new “Jeppesen Standard” for communication using published ARINC standards, and is currently working to “integrate EFB with forward facing displays and Flight Management Systems (FMS) as part of future cockpit concepts,” the representative said.

BGS is also actively working on updating reports generated by the Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS) to develop more diagnostic and prognostic alert algorithms to airline maintenance teams. Similar to Airbus, Boeing has continued to advance the way its data acquisition and transmission systems capture faults and performance issues associated with critical aircraft parts and components on new engine variants of existing aircraft programs.

On the 737 MAX, for example, Boeing has the ability to leverage its "AHM Onboard" tool that resides on the aircraft's Network File Server (NFS). This technology allows Boeing to reduce the amount of time to gather new data off the airplane to support emerging issues.

In May, Boeing introduced a significant update to one of the key applications as part of its digital Airplane Health Management platform, Self-Service Analytics (SSA)—which is capable of giving airlines the ability to monitor aircraft service trends, identify performance anomalies, investigate root cause, and perform custom analysis—by parameter, tail, data collection group, flight phase, and issue group, according to the company.

“Moving digital solutions like AHM and SSA to the cloud has also enabled faster data transfer/processing capabilities,” the BGS representative said.

Below is an overview of three of the most recent advancements in digital cockpit applications and services introduced by Airbus and Boeing over the last year. Look out for more coverage of some of these advancements in further detail, featured in upcoming editions of our Avionics International Report e-newsletter, distributed for free on a weekly basis.

Electronic Flight Assistant

Developed by the flight operations services subsidiary of Airbus, NAVBLUE, "Mission+" is the new Electronic Flight Assistant that was first unveiled to the industry during the 2021 Dubai Air Show. NAVBLUE also subsequently released more details about the technology in the April 2022 edition of the company's internally distributed technical magazine, FAST.

The Electronic Flight Assistant is described by NAVBLUE as single-point-of-entry for access to all of the information pilots need through an on-demand basis based on the phase of pre-flight planning, flying, or post-flight landing and taxiing they're operating within. The EFB application provides pilots with an interactive central map display that gives pilots access to their pre-flight briefing package, aeronautical data for en-route and terminal chats, as well as graphical weather data—all of which currently function within separate EFB applications—overlaid on the interactive moving global map display.

Several Airbus test pilots and those who perform delivery flights for the OEM have started using Mission+, including Captain Olivier Aspe, who described it as "a significant upgrade to current ways of working with paper or standard EFBs" in comments he made in the article featured in FAST. Aspe mentioned that Mission+ has proven capable of providing retrieval of the electronic flight package for flight preparation and weather analysis, computing performance for takeoff, documentation, and checklist.

"In flight, thanks to FOMAX, I had an accurate aircraft position and an automatic completion of the navlog. On arrival on the ground at a big airport, I took advantage of the Airport Moving Map (AMM)," Aspe said. "And I was able to electronically send the post-flight report to the dispatcher. Wow! I believe we have entered a new era of managing a flight in an easy way!"

Jeppesen Smart Airport Maps

Last year, Boeing Global Services quietly introduced a major new functionality within the 4.4 version of Jeppesen FliteDeck Pro called "Smart Airport Maps."

FliteDeck Pro is the EFB mobile airline charting and mapping application first launched by Jeppesen in 2012, and has been adopted by more than 380 aviation organizations, according to its website. The update gives pilots access to contextual airport information that is specific to their aircraft type, weather conditions, and operational preferences.

"Contextual data depiction means a pilot taxiing a B777 in times of fog sees a dynamic map with information specific to low visibility conditions," Jeppesen said in its announcement of the update last year. "They even see wingspan restrictions affecting taxiways unique to the B777. Once the fog is gone, a B737 or A320 pilot at the same airport will see different information despite using the same application and map."

Another key aspect of the upgrade is its depiction of wingspan restrictions overlaid on the dynamic airport moving map. There is also a "low visibility" mode to immediately see what taxiways can be used for the airport they're currently located at. Traditionally, discovering wingtip restrictions has required pilots to access multiple different applications and mentally note those details while taxiing.

Jeppesen also released a video overview of the new technology, noting that pilots who used Smart Airports Maps could reduce the amount of head-down time required to navigate their way around the airport.

Light Cockpit Satcom

An article published by two Airbus engineers featured in the April edition of FAST magazine, a technical publication distributed to Airbus customers, describes how the Toulouse, France-based commercial and military aircraft maker has lowered the footprint of an Inmarsat connectivity system for airlines operating the A320, A330, and eventually the A350.

The Airbus engineers that wrote the article—Guillaume de Bony de Lavergne, a cockpit satcom work package leader, and Rui Fernandes Dos Santos, a data link communications specialist—describe the new development as the Inmarsat Light Cockpit Satcom (LCS) system that replaces a previous generation version with more robust cockpit connectivity functionality provided by fewer individual components.

As a cockpit connectivity system, LCS is enabled by the “Inmarsat L-Band satellite constellation (today ensured by four I-4 satellites, to be complemented and superseded tomorrow by I-6 ELERA satellites network operating in geostationary orbit) using SB-Safety 2.0 services,” the article notes.

Compared to the previous generation system’s configuration of up to 20 master control units (MCU) weighing up to 60 kilograms (kg) from three different suppliers, LCS requires two MCUs weighing less than 10 kg from one supplier.

Flight crews also get up to 200 kilobits per second (Kbps) with LCS compared to 30 Kbps featured in the previous generation.

Jim Fawcett, a lead flight test engineer for Airbus, is quoted in the article, describing how his team evaluated the new system: “To ensure good geographical coverage and correct voice and data service behaviour at satellite handover boundaries, we even operated our A350 on a 12-hour flight from Toulouse in France to Gander in Canada and back, without landing! Our crews found the HMI (Human Machine Interface) intuitive and easy to use. The system behaved well and should provide a secure solution for our customers in the years ahead.”

According to the article, several airlines have already started flying with the new LCS system on A320 and A330 family aircraft, while the system is scheduled to become available for airlines operating the A350 next year.