Aireon To Provide Boeing With Space-Based ADS-B Data Services

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Boeing has signed an agreement with Aireon to access the space-based ADS-B service provider’s flight data stream. According to Boeing, it will use the stream “to expand its advanced data analytics capabilities in its effort to further strengthen commercial air travel safety.” Via the agreement, Aireon will provide historical aircraft data and near real-time aircraft event data to Boeing through its AireonINSIGHTS product.

“The power of the Aireon data unlocks a cache of information for Boeing regarding the operations of its aircraft in the global airspace,” said Aireon CEO Don Thoma. “With this integration, Boeing will have data to provide a full operational view of its fleet, and we are excited to partner with them.”

Boeing plans to integrate the ADS-B data into its safety analytics tools as part of the implementation of an enterprise Safety Management System (SMS). The company says the information will provide information that will allow it to “proactively identify hazards and monitor emerging safety trends.” AireonINSIGHTS offers information including airport and airspace events, ongoing flight data, safety events and location alerts using a combination of Aireon’s worldwide, real-time space-based ADS-B data and contextual data such as infrastructure, weather, avionics, aircraft registry and scheduling.

Kate O'Connor
Kate O’Connor works as AVweb's Editor-in-Chief. She is a private pilot, certificated aircraft dispatcher, and graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

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8 COMMENTS

    • I don’t think Boeing’s customers have the option to avoid ADS-B airspace, and I doubt they would try.

  1. If Aerion has the ability to monitor such data for Boeing, why not transmit the “black box” data to the cloud to assist in faster accident analysis when a plane crashes? No more frantic searches for the boxes that delays the process.

    • The problem is data rates. Black boxes monitor a lot more than ADS-B does.

      But I agree that it would be smart to head in that direction. Most commercial flights have in flight wifi, so there is data capacity there.

      • Depends on what data is a priority.

        Location data does not take much bandwidth, in 1994 767 engine monitoring data was transmitted from mid-Atlantic deep into the US via 1200bps HFDL.

        (Beware that not all SATCOM covers all of the earth. Iridium claims to but pass period seems long to me (it has had some satellite-to-satellite passover but that may have changed with new sats). Geostationary SATCOM is usually in ‘spot beams’ aimed at areas of high demand, so does not cover polar areas. The US government contracted for half of Iridium’s capacity for such reasons (for other than Secret information).

      • @Terry C. I agree that the total data from a flight recorder is much larger than ADS-B, but there are ways to make it possible. For instance, burst packets of data when any monitored parameter changes significantly, otherwise just retain it in the FDR. Accident investigators are usually only interested in the data leading up to the crash anyway. The data packet could contain just those parameters that had changed, reducing the need for bandwidth.

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