Funding from the NASA Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer program has enabled Near Earth Autonomy to develop a drone-based pre-flight aircraft inspection process. The Pittsburgh-based aircraft technology company’s Proxim unit is behind the technology that can gather safety inspection data in less than 30 minutes, compared with the commercial airliners’ typical manual check-up lasting up to four hours, NASA said.
Test flights on the drone system have been conducted on the Boeing aircraft fleet of American Airlines and Emirates Airlines. A drone in autonomous flight around an aircraft for inspection gathers photos through a computer task card with program inputs from Federal Aviation Administration commercial inspection rules.
Cost-Saving Potential
The drone’s collected photos are shared among airline maintenance personnel for remote analysis. Through the system, users also can sound reinspection or repair alerts if necessary. With the technology, the airline industry can prevent an estimated earning loss of $10,000 per hour on average during unplanned aircraft grounding, Near Earth Autonomy said.
Danette Allen, NASA senior leader for autonomous systems, noted that the agency has previously engaged Near Earth Autonomy in searching for autonomous inspection solutions in multiple areas.
“We are excited to see this technology spin out to industry to increase efficiencies, safety and accuracy of the aircraft inspection process for overall public benefit,” she said.
In October 2017, Boeing announced an investment in Near Earth Autonomy through its ventures arm HorizonX to explore new unmanned platforms for use in urban mobility and other emerging market applications.
