Rolls-Royce Chooses Microsoft Azure For IoT Engine Monitoring

Aircraft engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is set to use Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite alongside Cortana Intelligence Suite to offer airlines operational intelligence about the company’s engines.

Rolls-Royce, whose engines are used in more than 50,000 flights around the world every month, offers customer airlines ‘TotalCare’ – a program that allows airlines to pay for the hours they were able to fly rather than for repairs. Because of this, Rolls-Royce benefits from collecting engine data that can help airlines improve operations.

Industrial IoT

Aircraft engines are a prime example of IoT in industry. Rolls-Royce’s engines have hundreds of on-board sensors that send gigabytes of data back to airlines and aircraft manufacturers each flight.

Rolls-Royce will use Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite to collect data related to engine health, air traffic control, route restrictions and fuel usage.

The data can then be analysed by Microsoft’s Cortana Intelligence Suite to spot anomalies and trends. Microsoft said that with better understanding of flight operations, fuel usage and maintenance planning, airlines could potentially save millions of dollars per year.

“Our customers are looking for ways to leverage the digital landscape to increase efficiency and improve their operations,” said Tom Palmer, senior vice president, Services, Civil Aerospace, at Rolls-Royce. “By working with Microsoft we can really transform our digital services, supporting customers right across engine-related aircraft operations to make a real difference to performance.”

With Rolls-Royce working with Microsoft Azure, the companies say engine management is ready to “move beyond” the current levels of proactive monitoring of engine health and performance.

“Rolls-Royce has always been a pioneer in engine services, and this collaboration will create a new digital engine for Rolls-Royce to deliver an even better service to its customers across its world-class engine fleet through Microsoft Azure,” said Jason Zander, corporate vice president of Azure at Microsoft.

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