Airlines using drones to inspect and carry out aircraft safety checks

For some reason, the aviation industry only decided to introduce drones in 2015 to conduct inspections. And the first airline was Easyjet who caught the attention of the rest of the industry when they carried their aircraft safety checks using a drone on its Airbus A320.

The quadcopter, called a RISER was scheduled to scan and assess the aircraft. The data produced from the RISER allowed engineers to see what damage there was which may need further inspection or maintenance.

The drone, which was developed by Blue Bear and Createc, incorporated a system of smart navigation and computer vision, allowing it to fly around the aircraft.

And by doing so, the airline noticed a number of advantages of using a drone. One of which was the reduction of workers and equipment needed to carry out their safety inspection. Another advantage is members of the engineering team can now focus on other areas due to the time saving a drone provides.

But since 2015, other airlines have taken inspiration and swapped labour intensive safety checks for a drone. American Airlines is now adopting this new technology. According to Lorie Grabham, Lead Drone Integrator: ‘In theory, the drones would be doing more of the work flying in the air over the aircraft while our mechanics are on the ground being able to look at the images and process those images and do repairs if needed.’

The drone is equipped with an integral camera, a laser obstacle detection sensor, a flight planner software and an Airbus aircraft inspection software analysis tool. Following a pre-programmed inspection path, the drone captures all images with its visual camera. These images are then sent wirelessly to an operator’s device to view in real time. This allows the operator to see the damage on the aircraft’s surface by comparing it to the digital image. The software then generates an inspection report.

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