Bombardier and Rolls-Royce are introducing an enhanced aircraft health monitoring programme for the Global 5500 and 6500, combining the data collection capabilities of Bombardier's Smart Link Plus system with Rolls-Royce's new engine vibration and health monitoring unit.

Bombardier's Smart Link Plus aircraft health monitoring system collects crucial aircraft data, enabling flight and maintenance crews to quickly prioritise and proactively troubleshoot essential in-flight alerts, increasing an aircraft's operational availability. Approximately 450 Bombardier aircraft are currently flying with the Smart Link Plus service, which boasts a 99 per cent renewal rate among current operators. Global 5500 and Global 6500 customers who have Smart Link Plus system installed on their aircraft can enjoy further benefits with Rolls-Royce's new engine vibration and health monitoring unit (EVHMU), now available on the Pearl 15 engine. Working in tandem with the groundbreaking Smart Link Plus system, the Rolls-Royce EVHMU enables access to approximately 10,000 engine performance and health parameters on the Global 5500 and 6500, delivering maximum efficiency for Bombardier customers' precious flying asset, including minimising downtime.

“The integration of Smart Link Plus with Rolls-Royce's engine vibration and health monitoring unit will allow our Global 5500 and 6500 customers to seamlessly benefit from enhanced end-to-end data services that help optimise aircraft performance and reliability while continuing to keep maintenance costs in check,” says Anthony Cox, vice president, customer support, Bombardier. “This advanced service offering is a first in business aviation, highlighting not only the close collaboration between Bombardier and Rolls-Royce's technical teams, but also how we continue to leverage our full capacity as the OEM to make things easy and convenient for our customers.”

Enabled and enhanced by Bombardier's industry-defining Smart Link Plus technology, Rolls-Royce's Pearl 15 EVHMU features a step-change in ‘on-wing’ engine intelligence to deliver best-in-class engine availability through advanced data analytics. It can provide easy access to thousands of engine performance parameters with unprecedented levels of data quality, giving the Rolls-Royce experts at its 24/7 Business Aviation Aircraft Availability Centre insights of what's happening with the performance of their customers' aircraft engines. The system also provides early warning indications to prevent flight schedule disruptions and gathers key engine parameters by working in conjunction with Bombardier's aircraft health monitoring system. It even monitors the performance of line replaceable units (LRUs) to further enhance Rolls-Royce's predictive capability.

Andy Robinson, SVP services, business aviation at Rolls-Royce, says: “At Bombardier and Rolls-Royce we are delivering outstanding levels of in-service support, recognised within the industry and trusted by our customer base worldwide. In combination with our market-leading, digital capabilities, our CorporateCare Enhanced programme delivers exceptional levels of availability and greater peace of mind for our customers. Our work on cloud-based analytics, smart algorithms and artificial intelligence and even bi-directional communication continue to play an increasing role in delivering the most comprehensive service programme in business aviation, and our new engine vibration and health monitoring unit of the Pearl 15 is the key to unlock those capabilities.”

Select customers can now make appointments to install the Smart Link Plus box alongside the EVHMU unit on their Global 5500 and 6500 aircraft at Bombardier service centres worldwide. Both systems are now factory-installed on all in production Global 5500 and Global 6500 aircraft.