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AI-Powered Predictive Maintenance for Fighting Jets

Telemetry analytics and anomaly detection that predict L-39 component failures 10–20 flight hours in advance — giving technicians the lead time to act before something breaks in the air.

AI-Powered Predictive Maintenance for Fighting Jets — L-39 on the flight line
10–20h
advance warning before failure
−20%
unplanned failures
−15%
spare parts cost
L-39 training aircraft on the flight line with AstwellSoft branding on the fuselage
The challenge

What the client was facing

The operator of a fleet of L-39 training aircraft for the Czech Air Force needed higher reliability and cost efficiency. Maintenance was largely reactive — small anomalies in engine telemetry went unnoticed until they grounded jets, drove up spare-part spend, and pulled aircraft out of training rotations.

The goal: turn the flight data the jets were already producing into reliable, time-bounded predictions that ground crews can act on between sorties.

What we built

The solution

  • Telemetry ingestion and feature pipeline for engine temperature, vibration, oil pressure, and fuel flow
  • Anomaly detection and remaining-useful-life models predicting failures 10–20 flight hours ahead
  • Technician dashboard with real-time telemetry charts and component-level risk indicators
  • Anomaly reports, maintenance planner, and evidence-based reports for engineers and commanders
  • Audit trail and explainability for every prediction surfaced to the crew
In production

What it looks like

Illustrative screens — actual client UI, branding, and data redacted under defense-sector NDA.

Predictive Maintenance — Fleet OverviewFLEETL-39 · 0142L-39 · 0218L-39 · 0307L-39 · 0419L-39 · 0526L-39 · 0631L-39 · 0744L-39 · 0852At-risk components (next 20 flight hours)3Critical7Watch94%Fleet availabilityEngine vibration · L-39 0419Last 24 flight hours · anomaly detected at 18:42Predicted failure ~14h
Anomaly Report · L-39 0419Engine vibration trend exceeds learned envelopeSensor: V-ENG-02 · Confidence 0.93 · Recommend: borescope inspection within 12 flight hoursGenerated 2025-09-22 14:31 · model pm-v2.3 · evidence attachedTelemetry signalsEngine temperatureVibrationOil pressureFuel flowEGT deltaMaintenance plan▸ Borescope inspection · within 12h▸ Replace V-ENG-02 sensor · within 24h▸ Re-baseline vibration envelope▸ Schedule oil analysisESTIMATED IMPACTPrevents 1 unplanned ground · saves ~3 sortiesParts cost avoided · est. €4.2kApprove planExport PDF
AI-first delivery angle

Why AI-first mattered here

In defense aviation, AI is no longer optional — it is a must-have for safety, efficiency, and cost control. Senior engineers owned the data contracts, model evaluation, and fallback behaviour; the models surface risk and explain it, while ground crews keep the final call. Every prediction comes with traceable evidence: which sensor, which window, which version of the model.

Technologies

Stack

Python PyTorch scikit-learn TimescaleDB FastAPI React Docker

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