When the nearest hardware store is 350 mi. straight down, tool control takes on a whole new dimension. Take away gravity, and air, and it gets even harder. Just ask Jill McGuire, a private pilot who was also the engineer in charge of crew aids and tools for the last servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2009. “You have to take everything with you,” she says. “You don't get a chance to run to Home Depot.”

In the aircraft parts world, speed matters. If properly applied, it reduces inventory, saves money and assures components are where they need to be when they are needed. The trick is flowing those parts through the system more quickly. That is the aim of Southwest Airlines' recently initiated “Project Velocity,” an effort that promises a 5-7% reduction in per-aircraft parts inventory, according to Peter Requa, director of supply chain management. “We expect to take our per-aircraft inventory down from $650,000 . . . to $610,000 or $600,000,” he says.

In late December 2011, a U.S. Marine Corps mechanic conducting a routine phase inspection of a UH-1Y Huey discovered that the helicopter's transmission pylon beam and the main beam joint were disintegrating. Left unchecked, the problem would have resulted in disaster. The mechanic's finding led to a Corps-wide inspection and, ultimately, the release of an engineering advisory report.

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The Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) says new hardware, recurrent inspections and changes to engine monitoring “adequately address” its concerns about failures of high-pressure turbine nozzles in the Engine Alliance GP7200 turbofan engine for the Airbus A380. Investigators determined that higher-than-expected metal surface temperatures had caused the failure of high-pressure turbine (HPT) second-stage nozzle guide vanes in a GP7270 turbofan on an Emirates Airline A380 in November 2012. The resulting damage caused the engine to shut down in flight.

It appears that the Qantas Airways eavy maintenance facility at Avalon Airport—near Melbourne—could be the next casualty of the airline’s efforts to streamline its maintenance operations in Australia.