Airbus is all set for RFID take-off

Airbus plans to start tracking various aeroplane components using RFID smart tags once it receives regulatory approval from the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), which it believes will come through soon.

Jens Heitmann, senior manager for systems and equipment standardisation at Airbus, is confident that after years of testing, the FAA will give sign off on the technology by the end of the year.

'Once that is approved, we will aim to roll it out pretty quickly, tagging removable parts and the cabin area of planes,' he said.

'Obviously, we like to know what's installed on an aircraft, so we see an application there for RFID.'

'There's also many other uses for it, such as passenger identification, baggage handling and so on. They're not all useful within Airbus, but will be for our customers across the world,' he said.

The European airline manufacturer has been working with RFID for a while, initially by tagging the thousands of specialised tools that it loans out to its customers for the repair and maintenance of their aircraft.

Introduced in 2000, that programme alone delivered savings of a EUR100,000 in a single year, according to Heitmann.

In the build up towards wider usage of smart tags, the company has had an ongoing pilot programme to work out the numerous challenges involved with RFID in its particularly punishing environment.

'There's a lot of issues to sort out. For instance, you can't read a basic chip on metal, so you need additional materials to boost signal, as well as added protection and shielding to protect it,' said Heitmann.

All components also have to be able to deal with extreme temperatures, vibration, icing, contact with fluids like jet fuel and lightning, giving an insight into some of the difficulties faced.

To achieve this, the company is working with specialist companies like Gore-Tex to find bespoke materials to cater for its particular needs.

But if regulatory approval comes through and the physics challenges are overcome, Heitmann says a range of benefits will become possible, even beyond the benefits of managing parts in its supply chain.

'For instance, someone checks under the seat before every flight to make sure the lifejacket is there. If we could tag all of them, then someone could just walk through the cabin and scan them automatically,' he said.

Overcoming the technical challenges isn't the only problem: Airbus is also working with arch-rival Boeing to establish a global standard that the entire aerospace industry can work with.