From Control on the Ground to Tracking in the Sky
“We weren’t in the aircraft but feeling everything in the aircraft systems.” One of my friend told me about what he experienced an issue a few months ago. One day, while he was in the office, he and his team witnessed how an ordinary flight turned into an extraordinary story with the new system(tool) they had just started using. The aircraft was in the flight and was still hours away from landing. But something was wrong. The data sent by a sensor showed an abnormal vibration in one of the engines.
My friend’s words at that moment are still in my ears: “We weren’t in the cockpit or the aircraft on the ground, but we were getting the exact parameters from the engine. We were seeing every detail in every second as if the engine were right in our hands. It was as if a copy of the engine was in front of us.” What made this possible was digital twin technology.
Seeing the Unseen
In the post I shared earlier about The Rise of Digitalization, I mentioned how critical a small check and part change on the ground was for flight safety. Digital twin technology shows one of the ways of seeing the unseen at every moment of the aircraft's operation.
A digital twin of a part is an exact virtual copy of it. Data from sensors feeds this virtual copy in real-time at every stage of the flight. Engine performance, vibrations, temperatures… It does not miss the slightest change.
And this is where the real magic begins!
Failures are noticed before they occur. A vibration can be a sign of a major engine failure in the future. Thus, when the aircraft lands, engineers are already ready to fix the issues.
The Future of Maintenance with Digital Twins in Aviation
In the past such issues were visible if they caught the pilots' attention, they would report them or they would appear as unexpected failures. Now, thanks to the digital twin in aviation, maintenance is no longer a reactive process but a proactive one.
This does not just save time. Take a moment and think about it; the less aircraft is on the ground, the more flights they can have. It can also be said that the more flights, the more income it brings. Not only that, expense costs are decreasing, efficiency is increasing and most importantly, safety is being controlled more than ever.
A Bridge Between Technology and the Future
Creating the digital twin of a part is just the beginning. In the future, we will all see that many airports will optimize their operations with this technology, flight routes will be perfected to minimize fuel consumption, and air traffic management will become more efficient with instant simulations.
In other words, we will witness the realigning of not only aircraft but also the entire aviation ecosystem.
Seeing the unseen has always been the part of vision at the core of aviation. Digital twins take this vision to a new level - the age. It is now possible not only to solve immediate issues but also to plan for the future and even keep them under control safely. So, how much more do you think aviation will grow with this type of technological development?