Net-Enabled Applications for Commercial Aviation

Boeing is an aerospace company, and both airplanes and aviation services are our core businesses. Founded in 1916, Boeing has had a long relationship with China. In fact, the first engineer hired by the company, Wong Tsoo, was a Chinese national. Boeing is projected to sell more airplanes to China than other countries outside of United States in the next 20 years. Boeing's central research organization supports the enterprise by developing technology in support of the company's current and future products, streamlining operations, and improving tools and processes. In the past few years, we have been collaborating with Chinese universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hong Kong to develop technologies for net-enabled applications for commercial aviation. We expect this effort will continue in the years to come. Boeing provides a long list of services to airlines in streamlining their operations. Recent models of Boeing aircraft such as the Next-Generation 737 and 787 Dreamliner will be net- enabled in the air and on the ground. We are just beginning to explore the opportunities net- enabling the fleet can bring to the end customers in terms of safety, cost, and passenger experience. Airplanes are mobile nodes in an IP world, offering tremendous opportunities and challenges for researchers. In this speech, we will explore how net-enabling and Web services can help us to exploit the opportunities and overcome the challenges.