SAE’s Aerospace Council has formed the G-38: Automation of Aircraft Exterior Inspection Committee to develop standards related to the inspection of aircraftby automated sensing systems.

Included are inspections for dents, corrosion, cracks, window problems, and paint issues. By some estimates, over 80% of the inspections of large aircraft are visual. As the most frequent procedure in aircraft maintenance and repair, these inspections range from a walk-around to more detailed examinations of things like hail damage, lightning, and bird strikes.

The goal of the SAE G-38 committee is to create a consensus approach to automated- assisted maintenance procedures to ensure that aircraft safety is maintained and standards for data are agreed upon. The committee will provide recommendations for equivalency requirements when replacing physical inspection with automated systems, and will also explore guidelines and standards for the use of image data associated with automated inspections in digital thread and digital twin tools.

If you have related expertise and are interested in contributing your knowledge to the work of the new SAE G-38 committee, please contact SAE committee manager Maureen Lemankiewicz at: lemankm@sae.org.