SkyThread, a blockchain-enabled data network provider focused on empowering commercial aviation stakeholders, has established a senior advisory board to provide an unbiased, outside perspective, in accordance with its strategic plan.
SkyThread has developed a trustworthy, federated system of record coupled with industry-leading validation logic that makes lifecycle aircraft and parts data permanent and unchangeable.
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“SkyThread’s mission is to unleash more than $30 billion in value by rapidly accelerating error-free data exchange among participants,” said Mark Roboff, co-founder, and CEO of the company. “As a stakeholder-driven company, we recognize the value and importance of gaining insight from a diverse set of aviation-industry experts who provide perspective looking through a different lens.
“It is vital to have a sounding board that allows the company to access additional expertise, test our own strategic thinking, help identify potential roadblocks and explore new opportunities,” Roboff said.
SkyThread Senior Advisory Board Members include:
Sven Heitsch, former Lufthansa senior exec, founder of AVIATAR and creator of Lufthansa Technik Group’s digital strategy.
Edgar Jaufmann, former senior German aerospace exec – Airbus (Germany,) Diehl, and others.
Mike Stewart, former VP of Engineering Advanced Technologies at Honeywell.
William Voss, former president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation and previously an FAA executive and Director of the ICAO Air Navigation Bureau.
Voss said the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the aviation industry to rethink its way forward. “Reinvigorating the global aviation system presents an expensive challenge for industry and threatens to overwhelm the regulators dealing with a tidal wave of transactions using paper systems and an exhausted workforce,” Voss said. “Today’s emerging technologies have the potential to increase efficiencies, trust, and integrity. The need for that has never been greater. A stakeholder-driven approach like SkyThread’s is what’s needed at this time to accelerate the recovery of global aviation and create shared value.”
Jaufman, the former German aerospace executive, said blockchain technology and artificial intelligence provide opportunities to improve safety, for example by providing an efficient, unchangeable system of record that validates certifications, authenticates spare parts, and tracks data for the life of an airplane.
“What make this workable is that SkyThread’s system of record is compatible with existing legacy IT systems and requires no capital investment from aviation stakeholders such as airlines, lessors, airplane manufacturers, regulators, and suppliers,” Jaufman said.
Stewart, formerly with Honeywell Advanced Technologies, said the aviation industry lacks cohesion of information about aircraft, flight and parts histories. “OEMs, aircraft owners, and operators have their own data solutions or continue to manually log aircraft records. This is inherently inefficient for aircraft transactions such as parts procurement and authenticating aircraft records. It also creates a safety risk of counterfeit or unapproved aircraft parts being introduced into the system.
“SkyThread is addressing this problem with its consensus-driven, blockchain-enabled approach to error-free data exchange,” Stewart said. “There exists right now an opportunity to implement a system within which all stakeholders work together to share data that needs to be shared, while at the same time protecting data that must remain proprietary. Transforming this opportunity into reality is why I’m pleased to serve as an outside advisor to SkyThread.”