Airbus evolving into digital company as it develops Skywise data platform

#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

Airbus is developing a platform to harness big data for telling airlines in real time where potential maintenance problems lie and how to reduce their emissions and fuel consumption.
It has partnered with Silicon Valley data cruncher Palantir Technologies, which works closely with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, to take data from participating airlines and suppliers and use it for improved maintenance, better performance and even the design and engineering of new planes.
The German-French aircraft manufacturer claims to have 30 airlines with 3,000 jets already signed up for the platform. Airbus executive board member Marc Fontaine, who heads the digital project, sees a quantum leap this year so that by the end of 2019 Airbus will have 60 to 70 percent of the world’s jet airliner fleet, some 23,500 passenger planes, on the platform.

The data platform, called Skywise, began as a defensive effort to keep Google and other digital giants from usurping control of the skies. In the meantime, it marks the evolution of Airbus itself from just banging together airplane parts into a full-fledged enterprise of the digital era.
“A pact with the devil”
Like automobiles and other means of transportation, jet airliners are becoming as much a digital product as a physical means of transportation and Skywise is designed to give Airbus the edge in air travel.
Archrival Boeing also has a digital product, AnalytX, which started earlier. However, the US firm has gone in the opposite direction and uses its data to address narrow problems. Customers pay for each application used

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