Boeing Commercial Aviation Services

Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) – Boeing’s answer to industry’s demands for better security

Taiwan-based EVA Air was an early-adopter of Boeing’s Class 3 Electronic Flight Bag when it received delivery on July 27, 2005, of the first of what will be15 Boeing 777-300ER (Extended Range) airplanes equipped with Electronic Flight Bag. EVA’s pilots have been thrilled with the added functionality and convenience offered by EFB.

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks more than four years ago, civil aviation regulators around the world scrambled to improve security measures and assure the flying public that the entire air transportation system was safe. Notably, the International Civil Aviation Organisation encouraged airlines to install cameras so that pilots could monitor anyone trying to gain access to the flight deck.

Subsequently, aircraft, avionics and airplane-parts makers sought to develop the kinds of products that would satisfy the new demands for better security. However, airlines and the global economy struggled in the immediate years following 9/11, and the industry was relatively slow to embrace the surveillance products.

One key issue was that airlines found it hard to justify any device in the cockpit, where space is precious, that had limited functionality. Enter the Boeing Electronic Flight Bag. The video-security system on Boeing’s Class 3 EFB is just one facet of a multi-functional product.In fact, the monitoring capability was not introduced until after regulators and airlines began asking for such functionality after 9/11, and it is atribute to the product’s flexibility that it could easily accommodate the demands.

The flexibility may have been one of the reasons airlines began to change their thinking about the Electronic Flight Bag, particularly as the global economy recovered and air travel revived. Boeing Commercial Aviation Services (CAS) enjoyed a flurry of orders for its Class 3 Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) as 2005 drew to a close. There are at least a couple of likely reasons for why the surge came when it did. Neither, however, is directly related to a concern over security.

EFB has emerged as a core technology to Boeing’s broad vision of an e-Enabled air transport system. That vision, which is fast becoming a reality as airlines look to integrate multiple e-Enabled products from Boeing,including such things as Electronic Log book and Airplane Health Management, aims to make data,discovery and airplane self-diagnosis widely available among the many service workers, technicians,administrators and pilots who make an airline run smoothly, both in the air and on the ground.

EFB is critical to the e-Enabled vision because it offers a ready communications link between the airplane and the ground.“The industry sees the Boeing EFB as a great way to invest for the future and begin to rationalise operations in ways that will fundamentally change the way they do business,” said Dan da Silva,Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. “In EFB, they are buying a product with both immediate and long-term implications. For instance, on one hand it saves pilots from the physical strain of carrying many pounds worth of maps and documents onto the plane. And on the other, is acts as a compliment to products such as Airplane Health Management, a comprehensive diagnostic and maintenance service, should they decide to do that.

Capt. Ray Kennedy is the deputy director of Flight Operations for EVA Airways, Taiwan, which in July2005 became an early-adopter of the fully integrated and certified Class 3 EFB for commercial service. That is when EVA received its first EFB-equipped 777-300ER, the first of 15 777s to be delivered through2009. From a personal viewpoint, Kennedy said he has been thrilled with how the EFB has eliminated the requirement for him to carry a heavy satchel of documents onto the plane. “In the old days, I had to carry documents with me – plus the plane itself had documents on the flight deck,” said Kennedy. “If you’re an airline, think about this multiplied by however many pilots you have got. If you have a thousand pilots, you have got 1,000 sets of documents that have to be updated whenever there is a change. What nightmare. Now, that can be streamlined.”

Boeing’s EFB is called a “Class 3” product because it is installed in a flight deck and integrated with the airplane’s avionics, able to share information with other installed capabilities such as flight-plan information. By contrast, a “Class 1” flight bag is essentially a laptop computer brought into a flight deck. It is not integrated with the avionics of the plane and is not authorised to be used below 10,000 feet (i.e. during takeoff and landing). A “Class 2” EFB is a laptop that is placed in a crashworthy mount in the flight deck and can be used below 10,000 feet, but it cannot be integrated into the airplane’s avionics without installation of a “Part 25system” such as a file server, which can force a pilot to input data multiple times so that both the flight bag and installed avionics can access them.

Boeing’s Class 3 EFB also stands apart from dedicated closed-circuit cameras that can provide monitoring capability for pilots to visually evaluate requests from the main cabin from anyone who wants to enter the flight deck (such as flight attendants bringing food to the pilots). The problem, according to Boeing’s Dave Allen, Chief engineer for Crew Information Services, is that space in a typical airline flight deck is so precious that a closed-circuit monitor that can only be used to view parts of a main cabin is too limiting. “It is hard to find room for an additional video screen on a flight deck. So when you do make the room, you’d better make sure that the screen is as flexible and useful as possible,” he said. Allen oversees the development and installation of EFB and its supporting infrastructure for Commercial Aviation Services. “That is one of the real benefits of our EFB:It is like putting a [personal computer] in the cockpit,integrated with the airplane systems including communications systems, and I am sure it will be used for functions in 10 years that we cannot even imagine today.”

That is saying a lot because today’s Class 3 EFB from Boeing is regularly adding functionality. Using software developed by Boeing and its subsidiary, Jeppesen,and hardware from Astronautics Corp. of America(ACA), the Boeing EFB digitises vital charts and manuals, giving pilots instant access to the information they need in a paperless environment. An instant performance calculator gives pilots additional advice on ideal aircraft speeds and engine settings in any weather, on any runway and with any payload,information that can create significant gains inefficiency, range and payload – as much as an extra9,000 kg on a 777. Jeppesen’s award-winning Airport Moving Map, which is available only on Class 3 EFB's,enhances runway situational awareness by integrating technology with Jeppesen airport taxi charts to show flight crews exactly where they are on the tarmac. A special FAA study said that such technology could reduce runway incursion by as much as 47 per cent.

Allen points out that Boeing’s EFB has been designed to provide an open-architecture environment, and the product includes a software development kit – at no additional fee – that allows customers to develop their own tailored applications. With 80 Gigabytes of available memory, the Boeing EFB provides plenty of available space for additional applications such as enhanced fault reporting; electronic checklists; real-time weather information; and real-time Notices To Airmen (NOTAM) information

The increasing flexibility of Boeing’s Class 3 EFB is probably one reason for the year-end flurry of EFB signings – more then a half-dozen airlines signed up for Boeing’s Class 3 EFB in December, alone. But Allen said he thinks a recovering aviation industry,more willing to invest in products that will offer long-term benefits, is another big reason.

Also, Allen thinks that a changing competitive environment is encouraging the adoption of the Boeing Class 3 EFB. “Airline customers can go online and with a few clicks of a mouse they can compare the prices and schedules of several airlines at one time,” he said.“In economic terms, it is close to ‘perfect competition,’where a customer can choose from among several competing airlines with significant cost information. Airlines are realising that they have got to really work at offering the best price they can, and EFB is a way they can squeeze the most efficiency out of their systems.”

For EVA Airways, Kennedy says that EFB is helping the airline operate as efficiently as it can. “The airlines that will be around tomorrow are the ones that can control their operating costs,” said Kennedy.“Electronic Flight Bag is helping us to optimise our flight settings so we can obtain maximum efficiency.The Class 3 Flight Bag is more expensive than other products, but to me it is worth every penny.”

“Airlines can see that they need to operate differently going forward,” said Allen. “At Boeing, our goal is to offer them the tools they need to reduce costs and make the best possible decisions on their operations.We realise that, in the end, our own success is going to depend on the success of our customers. That is why we are focusing on products like EFB that can help the airlines operate more profitably.”

Biography

Tim Healy is a communications specialist with Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. He was a journalist for 23 years, including 10 years in Hong Kong prior to joining Boeing in August 2005