Aircraft Maintenance Technology

AUG-SEP 2016

The aircraft maintenance professional's source for technological advancements, maintenance alerts, news, articles, events, and careers

Issue link: http://amt.epubxp.com/i/725823

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 8 of 51

www.AviationPros.com 9 BOEING 737 MAX. Are your aircraft specialty fluids costing you more than you realize? Your choice of turbo oil and hydraulic fluids can impact overall maintenance costs and aircraft performance. That's why it's important to work with an industry leader. Eastman Aviation Solutions offers trusted brands, such as Skydrol ® aviation hydraulic fluids, SkyKleen ® aviation solvents, and Eastman Turbo Oils—bringing together more than a century of aviation fluid expertise under one reliable resource. At Eastman, we deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability for our global customer base. To learn more, visit www.EastmanAviationSolutions.com TO-3280 8/16 Proven performance | Technical excellence | Dedicated support © 2016 Eastman Chemical Company. Eastman brands referenced herein are trademarks of Eastman Chemical Company or one of its subsidiaries. The ® used on Eastman brands denotes registered trademark status in the U.S.; marks may also be registered internationally. AviationPros.com/company/11473209 bus that would provide all of the fault information, Base2 engineers had to become virtual maintenance engineers and create their own fault simulator. At its peak, the development team had over 25 engineers on the project, but averaged between 17 and 18 engineers through its lifespan. "With the limited schedule, we had to ramp up quickly and get the team up to speed. Since Base2 is technology agnostic, our employees have a broad range of skills and we must quickly learn the customer's domain." At its core, the OMF application evalu- ates more than 6,000 fault conditions using sensor data from across the air- craft, according to Donevan Dolby, Base2 development lead. To speed up the avion- ics integration cycle, OMF was used to diagnose issues when those components were installed during manufacturing. To hasten gate-turn (and reduce airline costs), OMF will also be used to diagnose fault conditions at the gate and during regular maintenance flight checks. While Base2 Solutions developed the functionality, the OMF application belongs to Boeing, which owns the right to use it in additional aircraft platforms. "On our test airplane, we have been impressed with the responsiveness of the OMF system on both the manufactur- ing and maintenance interfaces," Jessica Kowal, Boeing spokesperson, says. "When the airplane is in service, even a small reduction in maintenance turnaround time would produce impressive benefits for airline customers." Hosch says the application is part of the overall trend of aircraft maintenance switching from wrenches to technology. With the OMF as part of the engine health management you don't have to unbolt things to get the information you need to perform maintenance checks. The 737 MAX is scheduled for delivery to Southwest Airlines in 2017. It is under- going test flights now and was introduced at the Farnborough International Airshow in July.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Aircraft Maintenance Technology - AUG-SEP 2016