AvBuyer Magazine - July 2018

What to Know About

Aircraft Maintenance

Ken Elliott discusses aircraft maintenance and the

different programs used to sustain it.

t is understandable to think of aircraft

maintenance as just being ‘the service and

repair of an aircraft’. But there’s far more to it

than turning a wrench and preparing an

invoice. In fact, the proper term for aircraft

service is sustainment, and its primary purpose is

to provide for continued airworthiness (CAW).

Aircraft Sustainment

Sustainment for continued airworthiness includes

several blocks of activity, as shown in Figure A

(below). The complexity of sustainment is further

demonstrated by its application to the different

parts of an aircraft (i.e. Airframe, Cabin, Avionics,

Powerplants, Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), Landing

Gear, etc).

In the defense and special missions world,

sustainment is also termed ‘Integrated Logistics

I

Figure A: The different blocks of sustainment

OPERATING MAINTENANCE

84 AVBUYERMAGAZINE– July 2018 http://www.AVBUYER.com Aircraft Index see Page 129

Maintenance Resource Qualification

Support Management

Repair

Inspection

Modification

Upgrade

Service Bulletins

Facility

Ground Support

• Equipment
  Technicians

Training

Guidance -

Material

Repair Station

Parts

Equipment

Product Support

Warranty

Tracking

Records

Certificates

Data

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