on the job — and pass it down in a structured, systematic way,” Aguirre said. “This also frees up our other experienced staff to keep the day-to-day operations running smoothly.”
Airbus is sharing some of this expertise with its customers. “We have a team of senior technicians dedicated to training our customers’ own mechanics,” Aguirre added. “This enables them to perform minor repairs on-site, which not only makes their operations more efficient but also reduces the number of small repair jobs that come to us, allowing our team to focus on more complex high-level work.”
Future of Rotorcraft Maintenance
So far in this article, we have described the immense impact of digital tools on
rotorcraft maintenance. So, what will this area of expertise look like in the future? With the introduction of so much digital technology, will humans have a place in the rotorcraft maintenance shops of tomorrow?
The experts we interviewed expect the future of rotorcraft maintenance to be much different from the present. “The nature of rotorcraft maintenance is expected to change significantly in the coming years, with a growing emphasis on predictive maintenance, automation, and AI-powered diagnostics,” Schmidt said. “Take predictive maintenance. AI models trained on fleet usage and maintenance data can help identify cause-and-effect relationships between usage
patterns and maintenance needs. This can lead to increased asset
availability, reduced mission aborts, and lower life-cycle costs.”
Schmidt also foresees the emergence of digitally provisioned “conversational diagnostics” and “image interpretation and decision support.” In the first area, he says, “The use of generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) tools, such as ChatGPT, can facilitate rapid diagnostic activities through interactive conversations between machines and
humans. This can enable the
generation of customized diagnostics and maintenance instructions on the fly.” As for image interpretation and decision support, Schmidt said, “The integration of image acquisition capabilities and advanced image processing can enable rapid autonomous inspections and improve aircraft availability. This can
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