MRO Overhauled: The future of aircraft maintenance and repair

In the past, keeping aircraft flying involved either reactive maintenance, in other words fixing anything that broke, or proactive maintenance, replacing parts based on a notional historical or predicted lifespan.

Today, aircraft have onboard sensors connected to the Internet to tell maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) systems that they need to be fixed even before they land. The computers check inventory and dispatch parts and engineers to be waiting at the stand if possible, and schedule hangar time if not.

While they may have once been viewed as the aviation equivalent of greasy auto shops, MROs today offer a far more technically advanced maintenance experience. You’re more likely to see an MRO engineer walking around with an iPad than a spanner or wrench. And the next generation of services will require a true digital revolution in the industry. That progress is already underway, and if you look carefully you can see some evidence of what that future will look like already.