Australia’s famed Royal Flying Doctor Service
South Eastern (RFDS SE) Section is adopting Pratt & Whitney Canada’s FAST (Full
flight data Acquisition, Storage and Transmission) prognostic solution to help
optimize its operations, reduce costs, increase the availability of its fleet of
Beechcraft King Air aircraft and bring new efficiencies to their aeromedical
organization through predictive and preventive maintenance.
“The FAST engine health management solution is
ideally suited to the RFDS, a long-time P&WC customer that continues to raise
the bar as an adopter of digital technologies to support their life-saving
missions and enhance its operations,” said
Tim Swail,
Vice President, Customer Programs, P&WC. “We are committed to delivering
tailored, data-driven services to our customers that drive greater engine and
aircraft availability, reduce costs, and help optimize their maintenance
environment.”
The FAST solution, under P&WC’s expanding
suite of digital engine services, continues to enhance engine and aircraft
'connectivity' through its ability to provide situational awareness about engine
health, usage and trends. It captures, analyzes and wirelessly transmits high-
density, full-flight data after each mission for over 2,000 P&WC engines.
In April 2015 three of the RFDS SE Section’s
aircraft were equipped and utilized as sample aircraft to enable P&WC’s FAST
technology to be certified for Beechcraft King Air aircraft.
Since final
certification in May 2017, another three aircraft have been equipped and there
are plans in place for several more installations of the FAST solution in 2018.
“With the FAST solution we can now understand
more about how our aircraft operate, be more efficient and provide a better
experience for patients in the Australian Outback,” said
David Charlton,
General Manager of Aviation and Strategic Development, RFDS SE Section.
“We
greatly value the opportunity to collaborate with P&WC because solutions like
the FAST system help keep us at the forefront of safety and innovation in the
Asia Pacific aeromedical sector.” |
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P&WC’s FAST solution is available for numerous
aircraft platforms in general aviation, regional airlines, business jets and
helicopters. Other recent enhancements to FAST include propeller vibration trend
monitoring for regional airline customers, enabling on-board event detection and
crew alerts, turbine blade creep counting, as well as automated power assurance
checks for helicopter operators. |