Opportunities and challenges for context‐aware systems in aerospace industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current research and development status and future directions of context‐aware systems (CAS) in the aerospace industry. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a layered framework to analyse the current status of research and development of CAS in the aerospace industry from the perspectives of middleware, applications and business users. The approach is based on discussion and recent development of CAS in the general research domain. The resulting discussion is based on the authors' knowledge in both academic and industrial research. Findings – It is suggested that the key challenges for a wider adaptation of CAS in the aerospace industry are the high cost of context modelling and a lack of understanding of their potential business value. The paper proposes future research to invest in the development of a more systematic research, to focus on a modular‐based technology configuration and to investigate how to evaluate CAS performance in the aerospace industrial setting. Originality/value – The paper provides insight on issues that are preventing the wider adaptation of CAS in an industrial setting and outlines potential future research to resolve these issues.