United lead line technician Mansur Zia observes the exterior of the plane and uses the iPad to create service tickets and perform a digital maintenance release sign-off. | Image: Apple / United
It’s great that iPads can help pilots replace heavy paper flight plans and logbooks, but digitizing airplane maintenance could arguably be even more important. Apple and United announced today that the latter is now doable, after United received the first and only FAA approval to complete maintenance sign-off via iPads.
If you’ve boarded a flight before, you might have noticed technicians on the ground checking around the plane for anything that could be a problem (and you silently thank them for it).
At the end of their process, a lead technician would need to sign off on a physical Maintenance Release Document (MRD) that confirms the completion of…
