Multi-year Cooperative Agreement with SkyThread to Enhance Aviation Safety, Supply Chain Reliability and Unlock Value by Improving Data Flow Between Aviation Transactions

WARRENDALE, Pa. (October 7, 2021) – SAE International announced today a cooperative partnership with SkyThread, a Delaware-based startup leveraging blockchain as an enabling technology to track the journey of aviation assets from entry into service to sale, modification, conversion, transfer, redelivery and final decommissioning.

As part of the partnership with SkyThread, SAE will launch new initiatives and services aimed at improving safety and reliability while also unlocking billions of dollars per year in currently unrealized global industry values, beyond pre-pandemic levels of performance.

“We are excited to partner with SkyThread to collaboratively support the aerospace industry’s digital transformation and help uncover new opportunities for Safety and efficiencies,” said Raman Venkatesh, chief operating officer of SAE International and chairman of SAE Global LLC. “In pursuit of its mission, SAE is uniquely positioned to merge more than a century of consensus building with aviation’s accelerating shift towards a global digital ecosystem, where fair distribution of value is central.”

The aerospace industry currently uses manual processes and highly fragmented legacy information systems, which can affect the quality and timeliness of data flow, even for information that pertains to the same aircraft part or airplane. This creates inefficiencies across many aircraft events, MRO and aftermarket transactions.  It is also affected by the perceived risks in data sharing as well as a lack of fair monetization and distribution of value created in and across the ecosystem.

“SkyThread’s blockchain-enabled data network, combined with industry-leading validation, makes records and documentation data permanent and unchangeable,” said Mark Roboff, chief executive officer of SkyThread. “Confidence that parts are genuine, and that maintenance and operating records are authentic cannot be overemphasized. Trust in aircraft safety is everything in this industry.”

To learn more about SkyThread, visit: www.skythread.aero.

About SAE International
SAE International is a global organization committed to advancing mobility knowledge and solutions for the benefit of humanity. By engaging nearly 200,000 engineers, technical experts and volunteers, we connect and educate mobility professionals to enable safe, clean, and accessible mobility solutions. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our philanthropic SAE Foundation, including award-winning programs like A World In Motion® and the Collegiate Design Series™. More at www.sae.org.

About SkyThread
SkyThread is a blockchain-enabled data network provider focused on empowering commercial aviation stakeholders to unleash billions in value by rapidly accelerating error-free data exchange among participants. The company has developed a trustworthy, federated system of record coupled with industry-leading validation logic that makes data permanent and unchangeable. We call this authenticating “Data for the Life of the Aircraft.” The system is compatible with existing legacy IT systems and requires no capital investment from aviation stakeholders such as airlines, lessors, airplane manufacturers, regulators, and suppliers. The data exchange rules are governed by the Independent Data Consortium for Aviation, an industry, consensus-driven, neutral consortium comprised of diverse industry stakeholders, of which SkyThread is a member.

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