AIRLINE ENGINEERING departments are to gain, for the first time, direct on-line access to a Boeing technical-drawings database covering all its aircraft from the 707 onward.
Called REDARS (reference engineering-data automated-retrieval system), the subscription-based system gives maintenance engineers on-line access to "...the technical drawings and parts-lists needed for aircraft maintenance and repairs".
Boeing says that "...most airlines have had to rely on a microfilm-based system to store and retrieve drawings and parts lists". Such a microfilm system for the 737, for example, consists of 140,000 aperture cards.
The data is delivered to standard computer-workstations networked to Boeing in Seattle. Workstation operators can zoom in on a display image and print it or transmit it to another display. Boeing says that the REDARS database will be updated daily.
Existing Boeing digital-data services include on-disk maintenance manuals, service bulletins and other documentation and, this year, the company is promising the availability of 777 aircraft manuals on CD-ROM.
Boeing is using a newly developed pre-fabricated cargo-floor assembly system to cut up to ten days from its 747 cargo-conversion cycle time.
Under the new system, the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group Modification Responsibility Center in Wichita, Kansas installs complete sections of the reinforced floor at one time. Under the previous system, mechanics replaced one floor beam at a time. The "six-grid" floor-frame assemblies measure up to 15.25m long by 4.3m wide.
Boeing's Wichita conversion centre has modified 60 747s to freighter configuration and is working on a further four. Overall downtime for the conversion averages nearly three months, depending on the amount of supplementary modification work each requires.
Source: Flight International
