Who carries out maintenance on the aircraft?
Teams of qualified technicians maintain the fleets of fast jet aircraft. Activities range from the day to day ‘flight servicing’ involving pre and post flight inspections for dents, cracks, leaks or obvious abnormalities, refuelling and generally preparing the aircraft for its next flight. Any faults that are found are tackled through fault diagnosis either through knowledge and experience of that specific aircraft type or system, and most recently with the likes of Typhoon and Joint Strike Fighter with the aircraft’s on-board computer system telling the engineers what the fault is. Civilian industry also has an increasing presence on RAF stations providing services and support to the RAF technicians and specialist advice.
