Delta Air Lines has become the first U.S. carrier to receive FAA Certificate Management Office concurrence to use drones for aircraft maintenance inspections across its entire mainline fleet. The acceptance covers Delta TechOps, the airline's maintenance, repair and overhaul division based at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Clayton County, Georgia.
The semi-autonomous drones, named Reba and Dolly, navigate around a parked aircraft without manual pilot input, capturing hundreds of high-resolution images of the airframe. Delta TechOps will use the technology for what the FAA classifies as conditional visual inspections, beginning with post-lightning-strike checks before expanding to other inspection types.
The drone program is now included in Delta's Aircraft Maintenance Manual for its mainline fleet, which includes Airbus A220, A319, A320 and A330 family aircraft, along with the A350-900. Delta TechOps says the technology helps technicians reach airworthiness decisions up to 82% faster than manual methods, with narrowbody inspections that once took 16 labor hours now completed in under 90 minutes.
The approval positions Delta TechOps, one of the largest MRO operations in the country, as an early adopter of drone-based inspection technology that other carriers and independent MRO providers are expected to evaluate as the FAA gains more operational data on the program.
Source: Delta News Hub - https://news.delta.com/industry-first-faa-accepts-deltas-plan-use-drones-maintenance-inspections