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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has accepted Delta Air Lines' application to use camera-based small drones for visual inspections of its aircraft. This acceptance was granted earlier this year, and Delta TechOps has been integrating drone inspections into their maintenance procedures. Initially, these inspections will be used following lightning strike events, with the practice now included in the Aircraft Maintenance Manual for Delta's mainline fleet.
Delta is pioneering as the first U.S. commercial operator to receive FAA Certificate Management Office concurrence for using drones in maintenance inspections across its fleet.
The small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) employed are semi-autonomous drones that navigate around an aircraft capturing images without manual pilot input. Once captured, trained TechOps technicians and inspectors evaluate the photos to assess airworthiness before returning the aircraft to service, maintaining historical practices.
