Raytheon, American Airlines Partner to Improve Airline Safety, Reliability

Raytheon Technologies' Collins Aerospace business is partnering with American Airlines to bring aircraft data management technology to improve the airline's safety, reliability and analytics.

American is installing the Collins InteliSight Aircraft Interface Device (AID) on more than 500 aircraft, including its entire Boeing 737NG fleet and the majority of its Airbus A320s, with plans to install the device on its Boeing 777 fleet.American is currently performing the installation of the Collins AID at seven American Airlines locations.

The Collins Aerospace InteliSight AID captures, records, stores, encrypts, and securely sends aircraft data to Collins' ground platform, GlobalConnect. Providing an automatic offload of the data after each flight means the information is quickly available to the airline for safety analysis and implementing improvements. American's Technical Operations team will save time from no longer having to manually retrieve aircraft information.

Once data parameters generated by the aircraft reach the ground, they are distributed to multiple endpoints: Safety can conduct a safety review, engineers can review for reliability and use the information to help troubleshoot upcoming maintenance points, and an analytics team can use the data in predictive models to make the fleet more efficient and environmentally sustainable. American installed the InteliSight AID on more than 200 aircraft in six months, capturing, securing, and offloading data from more than 100,000 flights. According to the company, American has seen its data capture rate increase from 85% to more than 99%.

"Key to running a dependable airline is having a reliable and healthy fleet. And at American, data drives the operational decisions we make. Having the right intel in the hands of our Technical Operations team quickly means we can provide the predictable and solid operation our customers are counting on," said Stacy Morrissey, American's vice president of Technical Operations – Engineering and Quality. "With Collins InteliSight AID and GlobalConnectSM ground platform, American can provide our team members the tools they need to create a more reliable travel experience for our customers."

"Collins worked closely with American to implement a data-driven solution to save time and increase the operational efficiency of its fleet," said Jennifer Schopfer, president of Connected Aviation Solutions at Collins Aerospace. "The InteliSight data, passed via GlobalConnect, will give American the information it needs to ensure even more predictable, reliable travel for the multitude of flights it manages every day."