Augmented or Virtual Reality in Aviation

Introduction: Disruptive innovation has been present in various industries for years. It is a topic that is attractive to customers and can be the quite opposite for executives. While the theory of disruptive innovation has been misinterpreted over the years by many managers, it can still be a driving factor when making executive decisions. In the airline industry technology is evolving and new enhancements and being developed causing established airline leaders to rethink their business model so that they do not lose their market share over smaller airline companies. In this paper I will discuss two technologies that will potentially cause a stir in the commercial airline industry: augmented/virtual reality and new generational airliners (see Figure 1). I will also be discussing the importance of disruptive innovation in the business world.

Augmented/Virtual Reality in Aviation: Augmented reality (AR) is something that is not new to the aviation industry. The military has been using augmented reality for year in their jet planes to navigate, fly, target, and complete their mission. The use of augmented and virtual reality however is a newer concept to commercial aviation. Many benefits can come from using augmented reality in the commercial airline industry such as: better operational standards, enhanced on the job training, and most importantly safer flights.

One of the new advancements that has come from AR is the use of augmented reality glasses in airline maintenance. TAE Aerospace based out of Australia is the first to trial this technology. IFS Labs has developed an integration between enterprise applications suite IFS Applications and fountx wearable assisted reality technology. The trial lets maintenance technicians visualize software data related to the asset they are servicing on the fountx near-eye display (Wray, 2018). With this technology comes to ability to increase productivity and operational efficiency. You can remotely perform service maintenance on an engine by utilizing the technology to perform a step by step process for the user on site. You also will have the ability to order parts and upload billing information at real time while continuing to work (Wray 2018). This technology could be game changing for commercial airlines and the early adopters could quickly put themselves above their competition. I know first had how much money can be lost from aircraft having to be put out of commission for unscheduled maintenance. A lot of the times our company will have to fly out a mechanic to the location because someone on site does not have the expertise to perform the task. If we had the capability to have that technician remotely log in and capture real time data needed to help the on-site technician perform the maintenance and get the aircraft back up in the air would be game changing.

Virtual reality is also a new technology that is being tested out in the commercial airline industry. Air France and Air New Zealand are two of the airline companies beta testing this new technology. Air France is testing SlyLights which is an immersive entertainment experience for their passengers to view 3D or 2D films of television shows (Bellamy, 2017). They are testing on their Airbus A340 flights and depending on the test results could roll out the technology to the rest of their fleet. Air New Zealand is testing another form of virtual reality with their cabin crew. They are testing Microsoft’s HoloLens technology that is a fully self-contained holographic computer (Bellamy, 2017). “The airline envisions a future where flight attendants wearing a HoloLens headset can display passenger information on the headset such as flight details, time since last served and even the emotional state of the passenger” (Bellamy, 2017). Between Air France and Air New Zealand they are embarking on potential game changing technology in the commercial airline industry. If customers take to this new technology, they will potentially put themselves above many other airlines and force others to reevaluate their business model for passenger experience.

New Generational Airliners: Another potential disruptive innovation in the airline industry is the development of Boom’s Overture (See Figure 2). This aircraft is a 55-passenger supersonic flight that caters to the business/premium class flying transoceanic routes (Boyd, 2017). With this new aircraft you can get from New York to London in half the time of a normal flight and as the passenger it will not cost you much more than your typical business class ticket. Virgin Atlantic has already signed a contract with Boom for a fleet of Overture to roll out in 2023. If just one incumbent airline tumbles to the new airliner, which has already happened with Virgin Atlantic, it will be a competitive necessity for all the major trans-Atlantic players to do so if they want to retain the premium passenger revenue (Boyd 2017). I can foresee a significant overhaul to the way airlines attract premium revenue passengers in the future, whether it is mergers, purchase or new fleets, or changing layouts of existing aircraft.

Learning from Disruption: The theory of disruptive innovation over the years has become a large part of business thinking but has been misapplied and misunderstood in many businesses (Christensen, 2015). This was made clear in the article by King and Baatartogtokh as they dug deeper into the theory. They identified four key elements of the theory: 1 That incumbents in a market are improving along a trajectory of sustaining innovation, 2 that they overshoot customer needs, 3 that they possess the capability to respond to disruptive threats, and 4 that incumbents end up floundering as a result of the disruption (King and Baatartogtokh, 2015). They tested the theory by going back and interviewing/researching the 77 cases that Christensen identified as disruptive innovations and found only 7 of the cases contained all four elements meaning there is clearly more going on.

The strict definition of disruptive innovation clearly limits the amount of cases, but elements of the theory can still be used in business decisions. I believe Christensen also believes this to be true as well as he states in his article that the disruption theory does not and never will explain everything about innovation and how it effects businesses. He does however believe that the 4 principles should be present for disruptive innovation to take place (Christensen, 2015). It would be interesting to see if different combinations of the theory could lead to disruptive innovation.

I agree with King and Baatartogtokh that companies should not solely rely on the theory of disruptive innovation to drive their business decisions and model. Elements of the theory should be taken into consideration along with strategic analysis. Sometimes the difficult decisions have to be made to either compete or withdraw from the competition. If managers take into consideration every aspect of information at hand, then the most strategic decisions will be made for the best interest for the company.

Conclusion: The airline industry is always changing and adapting to new technologies and advancements for their passengers. With these new technologies comes the concern of being left behind and losing those