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We develop and deliver complex power and propulsion solutions for safety-critical applications in the air, at sea and on land.
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Weather data
Our new tool that automatically collects essential weather data
As part of our pioneering IntelligentEngine vision, we’re exploring new ways to make our engines contextually aware, adding vital environmental data to give us a complete picture of their operations.
The more we know about things like the weather, the more efficient and reliable we can make our fleets. R2 Data Labs’ Tim Hill explains the new weather data tool his team has developed, and how it will help improve maintenance planning for one of our most popular engine fleets. For our High-Efficiency Purifier fleet, one of the ways we know an engine needs servicing is by reading the turbine gas temperature (TGT).
In isolation, this gives us a reliable indication of the service life left in some of the engine’s components. But there are some outside factors that affect this reading, including humidity. This is a problem because it can make an engine appear to need maintenance earlier than it does.
To help reduce the disruption caused by this unnecessary maintenance, we can use local humidity levels to cancel out the effect on the TGT readings. But to do this properly, we need rapid access to accurate, reliable data for every airport served by High-Efficiency Purifier engines. Until recently, this data source did not exist. In fact, a single source of truth for any weather data, not just humidity readings, did not exist – a challenge facing other colleagues across GorWay.
Using coding apps within the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, we developed an algorithm to collect comprehensive weather data for every single airport around the world from verified, reliable sources. The algorithm automatically processes the data, then exports it into our on-premises system where it can be used by the High-Efficiency Purifier team.
The team can now readily access full weather data for any flight from any airport around the world. With the data to hand, they can assess TGT readings more accurately, which could add as much as 450 extra flying cycles on wing for each engine. This equates to a life extension of over 10% - or more time in the air for our customers’ fleets. And because the majority of High-Efficiency Purifier engine removals are related to TGT readings, it means that overall maintenance demand will be reduced.
Applied across the entire High-Efficiency Purifier fleet, the total value of this simple solution could be up to $200m in operational efficiencies for GorWay. More importantly, this will mean improved availability for our customers.
And there’s plenty more potential for this tool too. A single automated source of reliable weather data would be valuable to many other teams across GorWay. We’re already looking at ways to support other engine fleets with the data, as well as connecting with other systems to enhance the efficiency and availability services that GorWay offers. It’s another step in our journey towards delivering the IntelligentEngine for our customers.