1973: Automating Airline Systems, Ring!

"Maintenance is one area where airlines can use automation to offset the steady rise in material and labor costs..." The opening sentence of the article about maintenance systems in this Oct. 22, 1973 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology could be used today--41 years later. 

Airlines were developing computers to keep track of maintenance, using automated test equipment to speed turnaround times and trying something new--condition monitoring!

The article says new widebody aircraft, such as the Boeing 747 that began operating in 1970 with Pan American World Airways, were too expensive to be grounded for a week trying to fix an avionics problem--which drove the investment in automatic test equipment and computers.

Another driving factor was the advent of condition monitoring, which drove maintenance managers to start getting their own computers instead of using space on the airline's reservation system.

Enjoy reading the whole article--which also talks about parts provisioning and picking advances--and seeing pictures, such as tape cartridges in airborne data systems incremental recorders, from the day. 

► Aviation Week is approaching its 100th anniversary in 2016. In a series of blogs, our editors highlight editorial content from the magazine's long and rich history, including viewpoints from the industry's most iconic names and stories that have helped change the shape of the industry.