Aircraft Health Management Technology for jet engines represents a very important problem, since it develops a large impact on reducing the engine life cycle costs, improving the fuel efficiency, increasing the engines durability and life cycle. This technology is high-end and, in order to enable an improved level of performance that far exceeds the current one, propulsion systems must comply with terms of reducing harmful emissions, maximizing fuel efficiency and minimizing noise, while improving system’s affordability and safety. Aircraft Health Management Technology includes multiple goals of aircraft propulsion control, diagnostics problems, prognostics realized, and their proper integration in control systems. Modern control for Aircraft Health Management Technology is based on improved control techniques and therefore provides improved aircraft propulsion system performances. The study presented in this paper approaches a new concept, of attractive interest currently, that is the intelligent control; in this context, the Health Management of jet engines is crucial, being focused on engine controllers which are designed to match certain operability and performance constraints. Automated Engine Health Management has the capacity to significantly reduce the maintenance effort and propulsion systems’ logistical footprint. In order to prioritize and resolve problems in the field of support engineering there are required more detailed data on equipment reliability and failures detection and management; the equipment design, operations and maintenance procedures and tooling are also very important.

This paper presents the automatic approach procedure of a flying vehicle, attached to an ABB 7600 robot, and a mobile platform, attached to a Stewart platform. Due to a nonlinear dynamic behavior, it is necessary to implement complex control, stabilization and guidance schemes. The proposed solution for this system includes the development of an algorithm based on a backstepping control method, the controller design methodology being based on Lyapunov's stability theory. The proposed command law requires that the states are known, but it is also necessary to introduce a series of state estimators. Tracking a mobile platform is critical in surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking missions, with the control methodology defining a clear distinction between translational and rotational dynamics. The proposed algorithm is developed by separating two types of states involving an inverse kinematics, known as algebraic kinematics, in which the dynamic movements of the two pieces of equipment are used. The dynamics of the ABB 7600 robot involves a movement with seven degrees of freedom, while the Stewart platform can be used with a movement of six degrees of freedom. The proposed algorithm is implemented in both Matlab software and experimental testing. This paper provides results in terms of generating dynamics for both devices that can be used for simulating different scenarios of aerospace missions.

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The objective of this paper was to create a proof of concept for a blockchain application in aviation world, with an emphasis on improving the aircraft maintenance traceability. It is well known that aviation industry manages incredible complex systems, where failure is not an option. This industry needs blockchain technology not only for safety improvements but also for a new business model where airline companies can deliver more trust and more transparency to their customers. Nowadays, the passengers who are the end customers, cannot evaluate an airline company from the point of view of fleet maintenance. Bad or uncomplete maintenance are premises for an undesired accident. Moreover, aircraft investigators and auditors are experiencing difficulties in understanding how an aircraft was operated. Thinking of forecasting defects, models of predictive maintenance cannot be developed if accurate data are not available. All these can be changed with the implementation of the proposed blockchain application. Beside the theoretical explanations, the scope of this work was also to put in practice the main blockchain features and develop on a small scale, a real decentralized blockchain application using Python programming language. The script was designed to run on a localhost machine and store maintenance records and relevant parameters for the process of tracking an airplane’s lifespan in a chain of interconnected blocks. Therefore, the traditional approach in the data management is no longer an option for the aviation industry.