This invention relates to a method and device for maintenance in an aircraft.
Nowadays an avionic system comprises a set of on-board tools and databases so as, in particular, to computerize the tools, in particular the tools for diagnosis, for maintenance, and documents, such as the manuals for diagnosis of breakdowns or operating manuals for the airplane. The tools therefore now are used, for example, by software or databases.
Mainly, two types of maintenance can be considered.
First, there is considered the maintenance that takes place in the main maintenance base for the airplane or outside this base, consisting in actions limited to adjustment, safety and the need to have the airplane fly, also called dispatch, without delay or within a limited delay.
Then there is considered the maintenance performed in the main maintenance base for the airplane for which additional maintenance actions are performed, such as the maintenance taking place at regular intervals.
In FIG. 1 there is illustrated a diagram of maintenance operations performed in the airplane and in the maintenance base on the ground according to a known solution.
Maintenance is backed by a system, in particular a central maintenance computer 100 (“Central Maintenance Computer” in English terminology), that collects, consolidates and reports faults in the replaceable entities of the airplane LRU 105 (“Line Replaceable Unit” in English terminology) in order to help the flight crew and the maintenance personnel in the maintenance procedures.
Faults in the replaceable entities of the airplane 105 are the object of alarm management by a computer 110.
The central maintenance computer 100 sends out a maintenance message 115 to the company to which the airplane is attached, in particular to the maintenance control center MCC (acronym for “Maintenance Control Center” in English terminology).
A screen 120 is connected to the alarm management computer 110 in order to display the faults in the replaceable entities of the airplane 105.
The set of faults or events occurring during a service of the airplane is stored in an on-board notebook 125 called “logbook” in English terminology. This logbook linked to the airplane is filled out either by the pilots (“technical logbook” in English terminology) or by the cabin crew (“Cabin Logbook” in English terminology).
To do so, the crew manually enters in the logbook 125 the faults that occurred as well as the flight conditions under which the faults occurred.
When the airplane is on the ground, the logbook is retrieved 130 in the airplane in order to be read on the ground by the maintenance control center MCC 135. Then a maintenance technician goes into the airplane in order to analyze the faults recorded and make a diagnosis 140.
The technician then goes to the maintenance base on the ground in order to obtain the procedure for isolation of the fault 145.
With this procedure, also called TSM (acronym for “Troubleshooting manual” in English terminology), the technician again goes into the airplane in order to carry out this procedure for isolation of faults 150.
At the end of isolation of faults, the technician returns to the base on the ground in order to obtain the repair procedure 155 and if need be to order a replacement part from the spares warehouse.
Then the maintenance technician once again goes back into the airplane to carry out the repair procedure 160.
Then tests 165 are performed in order to check functioning at the end of the repair and an acceptance procedure 170 is carried out, consisting in declaring the airplane as being able to fly.
Finally, this acceptance is entered in the logbook 175.
As will be easily understood upon reading of the foregoing, this maintenance operating mode has a high cost, and grounds the airplane for a considerable time.
Another known solution consists in storing in the storage mediums on board (databases) the set of procedures for isolation of faults and the set of procedures for repair making it possible to do away with the maintenance technician's back-and-forth between the airplane and the maintenance base on the ground.
The set of procedures for isolation of faults and the set of procedures for repair, however, represent a large volume of data, capable of reaching several gigabytes of data.
The set of tools, data and documents furthermore must be regularly updated so that the crew of the airplane, and more particularly the pilot and the maintenance technician, can benefit from the most recent version of the tools and documents.
To do so, the tools and documentation are loaded into the computer or computers of the airplane by a technician in charge of keeping these tools and documents up to date (or synchronizing the on-board databases with the databases on the ground). He is equipped, for example, with a portable computer comprising in storage the most recent version of the tools and data, and goes into the airplane in order to perform the loading and updating of the tools and data.
However, given that these tools and the documentation represent a large volume of data, namely several gigabytes, this updating is lengthy and can necessitate grounding the airplane for a relatively long time.
The same is true if the technician uses a portable computer having a Wifi radio connection with which he loads the data and he updates the tools and data stored in the network of the airplane from the data loaded onto his portable computer.
Moreover, an airline company usually has a large fleet of airplanes which translates into a high cost for maintenance of the tools and documents of the airplanes in its fleet as well as an extensive configuration management of the data on the ground intended to be loaded on board the airplanes.
Keeping such a volume up to date thus is made difficult. As a result of that, the maintenance technician, relying on these procedures stored in the airplane, may obtain information items concerning the procedures for isolation and repair to be followed which no longer may be up to date, or even be erroneous. Furthermore, when the data for resolution of problems are on board, that does not avoid the need for the maintenance technician to make contact with the spare parts warehouse.