First Warnings

Between May 1 and Sept. 13, Finnair removed 26 components related to the bleed system in its A330 fleet—11 of them related to the bleed system computer. Of those 11, the problems were associated with high-pressure bleed valve (three), bleed valve (two), check valve (two), bleed monitoring computer (one), trim air valve (one), trim air pressure valve (one) and air supply valve (one).

Not to pick on Airbus, but the Hazard Predictor forecast the first warnings of each of these problems before the manufacturer’s Airman aircraft health monitoring system did, and sometimes Airman did not provide a warning at all.

Nathalie Willig, a project manager for Airbus’s customer services operation, says Airbus is working on its predictive techniques with Airman.

Skytta says Finnair focused only on these eight aircraft’s bleed monitoring computers for six months as a proof of concept to see if it resulted in fewer component removals and maintenance-related delays. While he believes the Hazard Predictor “shows clear potential for specific systems and components,” Skytta acknowledges that a bigger fleet over a longer time period should be tracked.

Finnair and FCE are looking for other airlines that might like to be part of the next stage of this project. Airlines should contact Daniel Jaroszewski, project manager for aviation monitoring systems at FCE Frankfurt.

Skytta says Finnair might want to use this type of monitoring for its Airbus A321s and A350s on order.

With new aircraft and engines offering so many health-monitoring parameters, it is good that airlines are devising new ways to use those data to increase reliability.