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Ed Yeates reporting
Research at the University of Utah may lead to a better way of inspecting aging planes. In fact, embedded sensors on wiring and metal parts could detect the need for repair or replacement without sacrificing major down time.
Passengers across the country were stranded when American Airlines pulled its jets from the tarmac to fix a problem with a wiring system. "We just hope we make it to Miami today. That's what we're hoping," passenger Kathie Hatch said.
The wiring issue is a problem researchers with Utah-based LiveWire Test Labs believe they'll soon be able to prevent.
For more than 10 years, researchers like Dr. Cynthia Furse have been working to create a device that finds intermittent problems with wiring.
"We would be able to find those intermittent failures. We could tell you it has happened or it hasn't happened," she explained. "It will also warn you that you need to make changes in advance so that during regular maintenance you could go and put your clamps and insulation in place."
Potentially keeping an airline from grounding all its jets at once.
Using Spread Spectrum Time Domain Reflectometry, researchers are able to send a signal down a wire, which bounces back an electrical echo when it reaches the end. If the echo is cut short, then researchers know there's a short or break in the line that needs to be fixed.
"We're able to tell how far away the fault happened. We can find the fault and we can tell the mechanics where to go to fix it, and they can fix it when the plane gets back down on the ground," Furse explained.
The device is so accurate it can locate a problem to within a foot of where it actually is, streamlining the maintenance process. The concept was developed by researchers at the University of Utah.
"We hope this is a simple system that will be in virtually every airplane in the world, and eventually, yes, in every car, in every home, in every high-rise in communications systems. We're hoping this system becomes ubiquitous in the next decades," Furse said.
So when all is said and done, it could be used from almost anything. When the project is complete, it will cost up to $30,000 to implement in each jet. That's far less than it costs airlines now to simply troubleshoot the problems.
The group will begin testing the system on aircraft this summer.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
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