Mainblades is a tech company founded by young inventive engineers in the Netherlands. Our mission focuses on developing automated inspections of aircraft with the help of drones. Our vision is to see unmanned and manned aircraft operating safely side by side in open aircraft environments.
Creating new products is the best thing there is – especially when dealing with a combination of cutting edge software and hardware.My mission at Mainblades is to maximise the value and unlock the potential of our products, balancing customer needs, technical capabilities and regulatory constraints.
After studying Aeronautical Engineering, flying gliders for 30 odd years, maintaining gliders for over 15 years and developing software for Windows, Mac, Unix, iPhones and iPads, I can now combine the experience I have built up over the years and apply it here at Mainblades as the lead iOS developer. Adding my knowledge of airplane inspections and protocols in the aviation industry to the team.
We are always looking for exceptional people to join us for the next phase of our journey! Check out our current vacancies here.
Perfectionist in terms of work and life. Passionate to create modern, complex apps with elegant design. My current role at Mainblades – develop the app which will revolutionize the aviation industry and bring it to a whole new level.
I’m John, a self taught front end developer from Israel, I was always interested in technology and specifically web development. When I’m not reading on latest developments in the field I play video games, from old to new, whatever seems innovative and interesting or cook for myself and friends.
In my career I always had a focus on perception for mobile autonomous robots. Joining Mainblades as robotics engineer I am helping to further develop our drones’ capabilities to perform autonomous inspections flights around aircraft.
As an experienced software engineer and technical lead for different robotic systems, I can execute the vision for the product we want to develop as Mainblades Inspections. We are convinced that the aviation industry is eager for such an innovation, with our goal to achieve a product which is intelligent as well as a complementary tool for the experienced aviation engineers.
The idea of performing airplane inspections with drones has occupied our team since 2015. We have maintained a high persistence to communicate our vision to the right people with a sound plan. We are looking to verify our technological approach in the actual application, and simultaneously formulate the right foundations for high potential business. I am convinced we are on the right track.
I have pioneered the thought that the aviation maintenance industry can greatly benefit from drone technology. Enthusiasm bore fruits, resulting in the current composition of the team and partners. Coupled with advanced technologies we are developing, the deployment of our drones for inspection purposes is the first in a series of steps that will revolutionize the aviation sector.
Graduate Intern Imaging & AI. Big Robotics, AI and Aviation nerd, born in Germany with German and Indonesian roots. I studied Aerospace Engineering and Systems and Control at the TU Delft. At Mainblades, my task is the detection of damages on the aircraft images. As part of my graduate research, I am also investigating methods that deal with limited available training data for machine learning models.
As a BioMechanical Design student with a specialization in BioRobotics, I got interested in the control of autonomous robots. Currently, I am working on my Master Thesis which aims at creating an accurate model of the drone and designing a position controller that can account for the uncertainty in the localization of the drone during flight.
Sjoerd is a passionate and talented electrical engineer. He is responsible for the design, manufacturing and testing of our product’s embedded electronic components. The PCB’s are essential for the power, communications and functioning of the ISAAC module.
Having a background in vehicle automation and a personal passion for aviation, I joined Mainblades with the goal of developing an innovative, autonomous and safe product from an early stage all the way to its delivery. My main competencies lie within the fields of mathematical algorithms and embedded systems.
With a background in Aerospace Engineering and currently specializing in Signal Processing Systems, I am really interested in the autonomous application of drones. During my master internship at Mainblades, I aim to bridge the gap between the navigation & sensing systems and computer vision algorithm by determining the real-world dimension and location of the detected damages.
I like to describe myself as a rational creative. I love to tackle down complex problems and find innovative and effective solutions. Sociable and open-minded, I work greatly in a team with no fear of taking the lead when needed. Analytical thinking, curiosity, and passion are the fuel of my hard work.
I am Michael, 26 years old and from Germany. Passionate about creating impact for brands and products I believe in. Aside from marketing, I enjoy videography, playing football and flying drones. In my current role at Mainblades I am both Marketing Manager and Business Developer.
Creating new products is the best thing there is – especially when dealing with a combination of cutting edge software and hardware.My mission at Mainblades is to maximise the value and unlock the potential of our products, balancing customer needs, technical capabilities and regulatory constraints.
After studying Aeronautical Engineering, flying gliders for 30 odd years, maintaining gliders for over 15 years and developing software for Windows, Mac, Unix, iPhones and iPads, I can now combine the experience I have built up over the years and apply it here at Mainblades as the lead iOS developer. Adding my knowledge of airplane inspections and protocols in the aviation industry to the team.
We are always looking for exceptional people to join us for the next phase of our journey! Check out our current vacancies here.
Perfectionist in terms of work and life. Passionate to create modern, complex apps with elegant design. My current role at Mainblades – develop the app which will revolutionize the aviation industry and bring it to a whole new level.
I’m John, a self taught front end developer from Israel, I was always interested in technology and specifically web development. When I’m not reading on latest developments in the field I play video games, from old to new, whatever seems innovative and interesting or cook for myself and friends.
As an experienced software engineer and technical lead for different robotic systems, I can execute the vision for the product we want to develop as Mainblades Inspections. We are convinced that the aviation industry is eager for such an innovation, with our goal to achieve a product which is intelligent as well as a complementary tool for the experienced aviation engineers.
The idea of performing airplane inspections with drones has occupied our team since 2015. We have maintained a high persistence to communicate our vision to the right people with a sound plan. We are looking to verify our technological approach in the actual application, and simultaneously formulate the right foundations for high potential business. I am convinced we are on the right track.
I have pioneered the thought that the aviation maintenance industry can greatly benefit from drone technology. Enthusiasm bore fruits, resulting in the current composition of the team and partners. Coupled with advanced technologies we are developing, the deployment of our drones for inspection purposes is the first in a series of steps that will revolutionize the aviation sector.
Graduate Intern Imaging & AI. Big Robotics, AI and Aviation nerd, born in Germany with German and Indonesian roots. I studied Aerospace Engineering and Systems and Control at the TU Delft. At Mainblades, my task is the detection of damages on the aircraft images. As part of my graduate research, I am also investigating methods that deal with limited available training data for machine learning models.
As a BioMechanical Design student with a specialization in BioRobotics, I got interested in the control of autonomous robots. Currently, I am working on my Master Thesis which aims at creating an accurate model of the drone and designing a position controller that can account for the uncertainty in the localization of the drone during flight.
Having a background in vehicle automation and a personal passion for aviation, I joined Mainblades with the goal of developing an innovative, autonomous and safe product from an early stage all the way to its delivery. My main competencies lie within the fields of mathematical algorithms and embedded systems.
With a background in Aerospace Engineering and currently specializing in Signal Processing Systems, I am really interested in the autonomous application of drones. During my master internship at Mainblades, I aim to bridge the gap between the navigation & sensing systems and computer vision algorithm by determining the real-world dimension and location of the detected damages.
I like to describe myself as a rational creative. I love to tackle down complex problems and find innovative and effective solutions. Sociable and open-minded, I work greatly in a team with no fear of taking the lead when needed. Analytical thinking, curiosity, and passion are the fuel of my hard work.
Our story begins in 2013.
Back then Dejan Borota and Jochem Verboom were robotics students at the Technical University of Delft. Borota was part of a startup that was involved in developing robots for cleaning ships. While working in the shipping industry Borota noticed a need for robots in a completely different industry: the aviation industry. This need was centred around a big problem with aircraft inspections which appeared to be a time-consuming and costly practice. Because of the associated cost, aircraft would usually be shipped to lower paid regions like Eastern Europe and Asia to do the work, which took planes out of active rotation for a longer period of time. Together with his university colleague Jochem, the two began to understand that the way visual inspections are done had not evolved since the beginning of commercial aviation. The two therefore decided to run their own startup to fix this problem.
These insights were deepened when the two got to meet Mark Terheggen. Terheggen is an active KLM pilot and was experimenting with drone inspections at the time. He gave awareness that inspections were done in a very manual way, requiring heavy equipment and putting workers at risk. People driving around the aircraft in carts, taking pictures and making notes on a piece of paper just appeared very outdated. The idea for innovating aircraft inspections was born. After the interest from the market was validated, the three began to leverage their strong expertise in robotics and aircraft maintenance and officially found Mainblades in 2017. Today, the team consist of over 20 passionate engineers that work hard to speed up visual aircraft inspections, making it easy to do a complete assessment and generate an accurate dent-and-buckle chart with the push of a button.
Today, an inspection of a single aircraft can last from 8 to 12 hours and involves 2 to 3 aircraft engineers, the use of binoculars and heavy equipment such as cherry pickers. Furthermore, inspecting an aircraft as big as the Boeing 787 can be quite a challenge: with 17 meters of height, the access to the top of its fuselage carries safety risks to personnel. It also means that the aircraft is towed to a hangar and must remain on the ground for many hours, causing flight delays or cancelations, which can be particularly frustrating when the inspection reports no need for repair. The job itself is a dull and repetitive task, no matter the aircraft type or its location. The engineer needs to be accurate in his work, identifying and reporting deviations, which can become a problem when he is tired, or under time pressure, and misses potential issues. At Mainblades, we believe aircraft inspections should be more accurate, safer, and less time-consuming, and we attempt to change this.
We are convinced that using machine learning to identify potential issues and create automated reports will help you to address these in a much faster, easier, and safer manner. By alleviating manual inspections methods and speeding up the process, you gain the advantage of making informed and actionable decisions.
With our autonomous drone solution, performing an entire aircraft inspection and delivering an accurate damage assessment report takes less than 2 hours. By reducing the extended aircraft ground time, we help you minimizing costs and making the best out of your flight time.
It is a win-win solution: while the aircraft engineer can inspect beyond the line of sight and deliver a detailed-rich report on the status of the aircraft, you can quickly act to continue your business operations as usual.
Stop wasting resources and start increasing the availability of your aircraft today!
We strive to disrupt the way aircraft inspections are conducted by offering an out-of-the-box solution developed to empower aircraft engineers.
We provide aircraft drone inspections for a faster, easier, and safer way of gaining insight into the status of your fleet.
Innovation is our DNA. However we believe innovation doesen’t stop when an innovative product has been created. For us, that is exactly when innovation starts. Our team is working hard using all the experience, expertise and feedback during development. We constantly develop new features to offer the best solution to the market and to keep challenging ourselves.
The customer is at the center of everything we do because they are the ones facing the challenges of visual inspections every day, That is why we always aim for the highest standards in our work, our product and our relationship with partners to make sure that we deliver value based on the individual business cases.
Are the biggest asset behind Mainblades. As our family grows, we aim to maintain the same sense of character. Our multicultural environment offers great opportunities to expand our knowledge and our expertise beyond borders.That is why we put great importance in leveraging the talent of each team member and working together to fulfill Mainblades’ mission.
When we say we understand aviation MRO today’s challenges, we mean it because we have the experience and the know-how. As a visionary team of experts in aircraft maintenance and robotics, we believe in innovation to overcome these.
Our team harnesses the characteristics of focus and determination that embody our company’s approach to problem-solving. Years of experience spanning companies such as Innovakit, DJI, HIT Racing Team, Fizyr, Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering, Volvo Trucks, Damen Shipyards, KPMG, Nayak, Fokker, Boeing, Embraer, Indurad, Robot Security Systems, and Fleetcleaner, place us among the experts in our field. If you are looking for a forward-looking team that can handle everything from robotics to AI in the aviation and aeronautics industry, you came to the right place!
Besides, the fruitful collaboration between Mainblades and KLM Engineering & Maintenance over the years has been boosting our development process to meet the specific aircraft maintenance regulations (MOE, EASA, FAA).
Finally, we work closely with the Delft University of Technology to select the “aces” to help us shape the future of aviation MRO.
Want to be part of a passionate, fun and hard-working team within a fast growing high tech start-up? Take a look at our careers page to see if there are any open vacancies, or just drop us a message to discuss opportunities.
Looking to meet us out in the field? Check out which events in the future our team will attend, and reach out to us to setup a meeting – we’re looking forward to tell you more about aircraft drone inspections in person!
Mainblades has been featured in “Dutch Pioneers in AI“, a video series by Zuid Holland AI, official partner of The Netherlands AI Coalition (NL AIC). In this series startups are introduced that are leading the way in the development and use of Artificial Intelligence across a variety of industries. Interviewed by Tim Franken from the…
We currently take final Part 145 certification steps for paint and high-speed tape inspections with drones. Soon, this technology is fully operational in the facilities of KLM E&M and beyond. Are you in London next week? Meet our team at MRO Europe 2022 and learn how we can make it work for your MRO organization…
Build it or buy it. Certainly, a debate that applies to data labeling. One of the first and most crucial steps in the machine learning development cycle and probably constantly on the mind of any data scientist. In this blog, Julian von der Goltz, Head of Machine Learning at Mainblades discusses the considerations we made to…
A very special year for us. We turn five! Five wild years to say the least with uncertainty, changes and major milestones all around. From the first proof of concept to flying in operational hangars every day. This is our story. Read on to get a glimpse into our past, present and future. Before you…
Have you seen Aviation Week Network’s latest article about how we tackle challenges with paint chipping on Boeing 787 aircraft? A hot topic in aviation right now! The software developed in cooperation with KLM Engineering & Maintenance automatically identifies and labels both paint damage as well as high-speed tape using high-resolution images and measurements. This way it can predict where damage…
Robots that operate in particularly challenging environments such as aircraft hangars, require fast and accurate state estimation. With poor lighting and no GPS that can be a challenge. That is why the Mainblades development teams are proud to release a new, in-house developed lidar odometry algorithm that has been in daily operation in the maintenance…
AI and drones. This unique combination can make big waves in your hangar, through which you can work even more efficiently. That’s not the future, but the practice Mainblades is currently working towards. No idea how to imagine that? Let us explain it to you.
Despite many turbulences in the aviation industry, Mainblades can look back on a year full of achievements and key milestones. We signed two partnership contracts, gave demonstrations across two continents, flew over 200 automated inspections, participated in several international conferences and managed to secure approval for outdoor flights at active airports in Europe.
