Last week 14bis announced that its blockchain based solution for aviation supply chains is being delivered for the US Airforce. The application will provide traceability of parts, secure asset tracking, and improved safety. 14bis will release details at next week’s annual Paris Air Show.
The US-based startup creates solutions for the aviation and defense industry. The firm won a place in the 2018 Air Force Accelerator, an innovation program backed by Techstars and AFWERX. It was also one of the winners of last year’s Aviation Blockchain Challenge, held by airline Lufthansa and software firm SAP.
Now, the firm’s impressive supply chain application has caught the attention of the US Airforce.
The ‘Supply Chain of Trust’ uses blockchain technology to provide a complete and immutable data flow for aerospace parts. This allows for improved safety since faulty parts can be tracked to manufacturer and counterfeiting can be more easily discovered.
Eleanor Mitch, 14bis CEO and co-founder, states: “The digital industrial era throws up big new challenges and opportunities for Aerospace and Defense. Key among these are issues of supply chain safety.”
Indeed, counterfeit airplane parts account for 2.5% of the world trade, with double that in Europe. Considering the sheer number of planes in current use, fake parts pose a big problem for the industry, which largely relies on paper-based tracking.
“I found it astonishing that the aerospace industry continues to track critical aerospace parts with paper-based systems, or with nothing at all,” said Warren Katz, Managing Director of the Air Force Accelerator.
14bis’ solution promises to address these issues with an up to date blockchain application. The company claims that aviation records are updated in near real-time, a crucial element for defense agencies. Additionally, the interoperable supply chain could bring together multiple disparate software systems.
“At the Paris Air Show, courtesy of our hosts, ANTAVIA-AMETEK MRO, we’re meeting with aerospace companies and end-users who don’t know what they own, where it is, have to dig through a mountain of paper to find the right documents, or have disparate IT systems that don’t talk to each other,” explained Eleanor Mitch.
“We’re ready to help them improve safety and be audit-ready with secured messages, documents and data exchanges.”
This year has seen blockchain aviation solutions from supplier GE Aviation with Microsoft Azure, and Honeywell using Hyperledger Fabric.
