Boeing Solution Speeds Delivery of Critical Data to Flight Deck

Co-developed by Jeppesen and Boeing Information Services, application gives airlines a competitive edge

Englewood, Colo. | 10 May 2012 | By Boeing and Jeppesen

A new flight data delivery solution for airlines developed jointly by teams at Boeing (NYSE: BA) subsidiary Jeppesen and Boeing Information Services slashes the time required to deliver and load vital flight data to an airplane. Application Data Enhanced Loading (ADEL) is a solution that reduces overall workload, network bandwidth requirements and costs associated with airline data operations. ADEL supports Boeing and Jeppesen Electronic Flight Bags.

“In a challenging business environment where airlines are looking to reduce costs and workload wherever possible, the Application Data Enhanced Loading solution provides an important competitive advantage,” said Tim Huegel, director, Jeppesen Aviation Portfolio Management. “About ten percent of terminal chart data is changed per revision cycle, meaning this optimized system for delivering flight data eliminates a large amount of data transmittal and increases operational efficiency for airlines.”

ADEL enhances the delivery of frequently changing airport terminal charting information, Windows-based airport moving maps, electronic document browser (EDB) and onboard performance tool (OPT) data associated with electronic flight bag (EFB) use in the flight deck.

Previously, airlines were required to dispatch a maintenance technician to load a digital file of up to 150 megabytes of updated EFB data to each airplane on a weekly basis. Now, only the “delta set,” or the EFB data that has been changed, is required for wireless transmission, and the update can be activated by flight crew. With ADEL, what would take technicians up to an hour to perform can now be done by a flight crew in less than one minute.

Korean Air is the first commercial aviation operator to integrate the Application Data Enhanced Loading solution to enhance its EFB-related data operations.

The ADEL solution incorporates Jeppesen’s industry-leading data delivery management (DDM) system and integrates other Boeing technology to vastly improve the delivery and loading of EFB data to the airplane.

“This is another step in Boeing’s drive to enable the Digital Airline,” said John Maggiore, Director of Airline Performance Management in Boeing Commercial Aviation Services’ Information Services business. “Enabling airlines to manage the distribution of digital data on their fleets more efficiently and at lower cost via ADEL will give our customers a competitive edge.”