Monitoring Of Aircraft Component Health (MACH) - SEEDA

Aircraft components will learn to report their own impending failures before they happen. The MACH programme addresses a critical gap in aviation maintenance: the inability to predict precisely when a part will fail. Currently, components are replaced on fixed schedules, wasting money and discarding perfectly functional parts. Health monitoring technology aims to give aircraft the capability to diagnose and predict failure in their own equipment and systems in real time. If successful, the technology could make aircraft more affordable, safer, cleaner, and quieter. For the South of England, where much of the UK’s health monitoring expertise is concentrated, the programme directly supports job security, skills development, and supply chain access for regional companies. SEEDA’s £2.5 million match funding helps companies in the region secure jobs, increase skills, and facilitate business growth and competitiveness. The three-year programme builds directly on the earlier HealthMaP project, taking those technologies toward commercial application. This is applied research with a clear industrial target: keeping aircraft in the air longer, more safely, and at lower cost.