Airbus
We designed and developed a cutting-edge IoT connected mobile app to streamline aircraft maintenance, during routine airline ground checks, by providing real-time monitoring of tyre pressure and temperature across all six tyres of an aircraft. This app provides maintenance engineers with an intuitive interface to quickly check tyre health, receive instant alerts for any faults, and determine pass/fail statuses with ease.
To design and develop a mobile application that seamlessly communicates with six tyre pressure and temperature sensors, creating an efficient bridge between aircraft sensor data and a cloud-based portal.
The application needed to connect to all six sensors simultaneously via Bluetooth, ensuring secure data encryption, efficient data transmission, and real-time access to sensor readings.
With the aim to persuade major airlines to adopt the Airbus solution, the application needed to focus on user experience, security, and reliability as key priorities, so that adoption could be encouraged over the outdated traditional methods.
We began by conducting a workshop to quickly iterate on a design-led prototype, followed by developing a web-based prototype that communicated with a simulated Bluetooth sensor environment. This approach allowed us to easily share and test the prototype, refining communication protocols and processes along the way. Once we were confident in the design and functionality, we transitioned from the web prototype to laying the groundwork for the mobile application.
Simultaneously, we developed a cloud portal and defined the communication API for the mobile app, ensuring secure, handshake-based authentication for airlines and efficient registration of aircraft sensor data. We thoroughly tested this setup using our emulated sensor code, which allowed us to validate the system’s effectiveness.
For the mobile app, we used a Vue.js frontend and Capacitor.js to build both iOS and Android versions from a single codebase. To streamline Bluetooth communication across platforms, we created a custom Capacitor Bluetooth plugin, translating platform-specific Bluetooth functionalities into a unified API. This enabled us to leverage standard web technologies to seamlessly connect the mobile app with the cloud portal.
Key Features:
• Seamless Sensor Integration: The app synchronises effortlessly with all six tyre sensors, enabling real-time data communication. Maintenance engineers can instantly access live sensor data from their mobile devices, streamlining the inspection process.
• Data Synchronisation: The app automatically downloads sensor readings during each flight and securely uploads them to a cloud server, acting as a reliable data conduit between the aircraft and the cloud for ongoing monitoring.
• Enhanced Maintenance Efficiency: The app simplifies tyre reinflation and mandatory checks, allowing for faster and more precise routine maintenance, helping engineers reduce downtime.
• Predictive Maintenance: With sensor data stored and analysed in the cloud, the system provides predictive insights that enable proactive maintenance, helping prevent potential issues and extending the life of aircraft tyres.
The technology has been met with highly positive feedback during demonstrations with major airlines worldwide. The app is now preparing to enter the ‘in-service review’ phase with aviation regulatory bodies to secure commercial approval. A global rollout to airlines is expected in 2025.
New Icon are honoured to have been part of this journey – a project hindered by the global pandemic – and can't wait to see it in use on regular ground checks when we fly!
New lcon’s deliverables have exceeded our expectations.
We would like to thank the New Icon team for the work accomplished. OnePRESS will be the first wireless safety critical opportunity that will use a mobile application to go to an In-Service Evaluation with Airbus airline customers. As such, there was no precedent for the Landing Gear Design Office to start from. Newicon quickly understood that their expertise could complement our capability to compile design documentation and adapted their process to suit our needs. New lcon’s deliverables have exceeded our expectations. "
Newicon understood our needs, ensuring solutions were current and future-proofed
Ethicall have worked with Newicon for approximately 10 years. During this time Newicon have worked with us on various projects, but predominantly they have helped us design and build a bespoke telephone fundraising software system which encompasses all the nuanced and niche elements of our business. They really took the time to understand what we needed as a fundraising call centre and then constantly revisited this with us to ensure it was still fit for purpose and future proof. The engineers working on the project have always been mindful of building in stages with regular testing and approval from users – they are also able to communicate in non-technical speak – which is always useful for those of us not from a technical background. Newicon’s recent introduction of project managers has enhanced their services further. "
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Newicon’s ability to over deliver against our expectations and to help drive our innovation has made them an extension of our own business. The team are excellent to work with, and their passion for our business competes with our own. I would recommend Newicon for both your development and design needs. "
You’ve understood the project quicker and got further with the design in 3 weeks than our previous company did in a year.
I’m very impressed with how you’ve interpreted the brief and interviews!
You have captured the use case and functionality really well. "
You've done an amazing job of taking our concept and actualising it into something much more real!
This process has cemented our concepts into requirements, plans and something much easier to step forward with, both internally and as something we can tell the story to others. We've been particularly impressed with how you've taken a fairly niche topic and run with detailed concepts and clearly understood what we are aiming for! "
We're miles ahead of where I expected us to be at this stage, and we've all really appreciated the effort you've put in.
Everyone is really, really happy and pleased with what you've put together, blown away! We love the simplicity of the prototype. "
The project is well thought through, smartly taking into account every little request we had. Which is amazing, I love that!
I've been using the prototype to pitch the idea with potential clients and the feedback has been really good so far. "
We really love the overall look of this
It's a very clean simple interface which still clearly conveys a lot of really important information, so thank you! "
Very happy with the end results and designs for the new features
New Icons redesigns brought the app layout up to date which was amazing to implement over the last year alongside integrating new products into the app. Meeting face-to-face meant that New Icon could properly understand the requirements and turn them into fully functional designs that added to the overall user experience. Very happy with the end results and designs for the new features. "
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Newicon's ideas have pioneered mobile software development within my department. Their solutions are innovative and effective producing results above original expectations. "
Newicon took the time to fully understand our requirements, and the clickable prototype really helped shape our thinking.
It has been a pleasure collaborating with Newicon on this project. Their commitment, attention to detail and passion for their work has enabled us to produce a quality app and seek further investment. Newicon took the time to fully understand our requirements, and the clickable prototype really helped shape our thinking and produced an intuitive UX, whilst also de-risking the development phase. "
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