An aircraft visual inspection is a recurring procedure in aviation maintenance, repair & overhaul (MRO) to ensure the aircraft’s airworthiness. Over 75 percent of inspections on large transport aircraft are visual. It is the process of using the naked eye to inspect and detect damages or anomalies that might pose a risk to the continued safe operation of the aircraft. Therefore, as the most basic method of assessing the overall condition of an aircraft and its parts, aircraft visual inspections must be accurate and proficient in order to report defects, manufacturing errors, or component fatigue.
Visual Inspections
Depending on their difficulty and degree of effectiveness, aircraft visual inspections can be divided into four different categories:
- The walkaround inspection is a general check to assess the overall condition of the aircraft and its compliance with the security standards. It is performed by a human inspector by walking around on the ground below the aircraft, as the name suggests.
- The general visual inspection is carried out routinely to inspect, locate, and evaluate any damage, failure, or anomaly. For most areas, the human inspector requires additional equipment, such as ladders and cherry pickers.
- A detailed visual inspection consists of an intensive examination of a specific area, component, or system for the detection of damages. Usually, some tools are required, including the use of a flashlight, magnifying glass, mirrors, or specialistic measuring tools, etc.
- A special detailed visual inspection may be required for damage assessment of a specific item, installation, or assembly.
Continuous studies have proven that commercial air travel is one of the safest methods of transportation. However, aircraft visual inspections still raise concerns about its reliability. To properly conduct a visual inspection, the inspector must possess visual acuity to detect defects and a working knowledge of the aircraft and its parts. As it mostly relies on the uses of the human senses, the whole process of visually inspecting the aircraft must ensure uniform procedures and techniques that, when repeated, provide the same results from different inspectors.
Benefits of using drones
aircraft visual inspection
We have combined our experience in aircraft maintenance and robotics with state-of-the-art technology so that you can achieve game-changing results. Our drone-powered inspection tool can be accessed anywhere and anytime, enabling aircraft engineers to perform aircraft inspections in one click. The damage assessment report pinpoints the exact location of anomalies and damages found. This information can be used by your structure engineers to add notes on its depth for a faster decision on the additional repairs.
- Easy: The high mobility and flexible deployment of our drone reduce the resources required for manual inspections.
- Faster: With our intuitive user interface, performing aircraft inspection and delivering data reports takes less than 1 hour.
- Safer: An automated inspection process prevents human exposure to dangerous situations but also complies with high standards for safety and security.
