Spanish Air Force to integrate Airbus drone maintenance
The Spanish Air Force will become the first customer for a new advanced aircraft maintenance system from Airbus that uses drones and augmented reality.
Drones equipped with sensors will scan an aircraft autonomously, securely transmitting data to tablets and AR devices on the ground. Airbus claims the platform could reduce maintenance times on military aircraft from around one week to just two hours. The system has been trialled using a variety of different drones and sensor suites, according to Oscar Munoz, industrial innovation and digitalisation manager at Airbus.
“We’ve been testing a lot of different manufacturers,” Munoz told The Engineer ahead of the announcement of the deal. “Falcon 8, 8+, DJI, a lot of platforms from the best manufacturers in the world.
“We can incorporate different sensors. The most common is 4K HD cameras, but also other sensors like fuels and leak detection, thermographics…the different sensors used for non-destructive inspection by hand, these can all be installed in the drones.
“If a customer wants to have a 3D model of a part or of the entire aircraft, we can install a 3D model camera.”
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