Commercial Aircraft On-Board Loadable Software Distribution and Control

What is it about?

Modern commercial aircraft have become more and more software-controlled. The use of physical media to distribute and control on-board loadable software is inefficient and costly. The paper studied the traditional software distribution and control process, and proposed a VPN and wireless-based digital solution framework by applying the State of the Art, including electronic signatures, data encryption, network security, artificial Intelligence(AI), and digital twin technology. The solutions can significantly enhance the ability of manufacturers and operators to manage the on-board loadable software, reduce the time spent in copying and distributing the physical media, which can also contribute to aircraft predictive maintenance.

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Photo by Juanjo Jaramillo on Unsplash

Photo by Juanjo Jaramillo on Unsplash

Why is it important?

With the rapid development of computer science and digital technology, the global commercial aviation industry is becoming more intelligent and software-based, making aircraft on-board loadable software have grown in complexity and pose a significant maintenance financial burden to aircraft operators (Yoo, et al., 2012).In the past decades, the number of applications used to control aircraft systems and flight functions has grown exponentially (Montalk, 1991). The older Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 are loaded with about 30 pieces of software that rarely change. But the software number of Boeing 777 introduced in the 1990s has increased to more than 120 (Campbell, 2020). Nowadays, as modern civil aircraft become more integrated and complex, the software scale continues to increase. Figure 1 shows the estimated software line of code (SLOC) double growth for Boeing and Airbus aircraft every four years. The latest airplanes, such as Boeing 787, have 14 million lines of code (Institute, 2020), and Airbus A380 widely used IMA technology, increasing the software-controlled systems as shown in Figure 2 (Ramsey, 2007). Correspondingly, software distribution and control have become challenging. In tradition, the operator purchases software from the aircraft manufacturer or supplier, and the software is delivered to the operator by media like floppy disks, CDs, or other formats. After the operator receives the software, they treat software delivery media like hardware as company assets and then install it onto the aircraft when performing line maintenance or shop maintenance. The use of physical media to distribute and control software is inefficient and costly. It can take several hours to conduct one software loading for the fleet, which may cost millions of dollars unnecessary labor each year, leading to the research question: What is the digital solution for software distribution and control that meets the demands of all stakeholders?

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