Usually when you hear of drones and airplanes coming together it is for negative reasons.  Since drone popularity has increased we often hear stories of how drones encroach in airspace designated for airplanes and helicopters, of how these drones are creating unsafe conditions around airports.  The reality is that the vast majority of drone operators follow the rules when it comes to regulated airspace.  In fact as technology progresses the commercial aviation industry will now be receiving assistance from drones with the help of a company specializing in aeronautic inspections.

Based out of Toulouse in Southwestern France, Donecle has perfected the art of autonomous aircraft inspections with the use of drones.  Founded in 2015 by Yann Bruner, Matthieu Claybrough, Josselin Bequet, and Alban Deruaz-Pepin, Donecle has been trusted by companies like Airbus and EL AL to oversee the inspections of their airplanes.  This past summer Donecle was issued it’s first patent for Inspection in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.  Soon after the issue of this patent it was announced that they will begin an inspection trial for the largest airline in South America, LATAM Airlines Group.  The founders of Donecle, all experts in the field of aviation, saw a need to find a better way of inspecting airplanes.  Together with a team of experts in aviation, robotics, UAVs, and entrepreneurs Donecle has designed a drone along with state of the art inspection software that has made them the leaders in autonomous aircraft inspections.

Traditional aircraft inspections require workers to use cranes or scaffolding to reach all areas of the plane.  Each job card needs to be individually inspected.  Such as the quality of the paint, lighting strikes, markings checks, traceability, and general visual inspections.  This process is very costly, often puts people in dangerous positions, and can take a minimum of six hours to complete.  In comparison, as stated on their website, “Donecle is an aircraft inspection solution combining 100% automated drone to an image analysis software. The solution helps optimizing maintenance activities, reducing the inspection time to less than 1 hour, supporting analysis of damages on the aircraft structure, automatically generating reports, and improving traceability over time.”  

Using a drone to inspect a plane means no individuals need to put themselves at risk to check the integrity of a plane.  Time is cut down dramatically as a drone can quickly access the entire body of a plane capturing HD images.  These images can then be analyzed and inspected with precise scrutiny.  Not only are inspectors given detailed images to inspect, but they can inspect multiple issues per single image.  For example, they can check the paint quality and markings on a plane from one image instead of sending a person out to check each issue separately as previously done.

Donecle explains that their system works in three steps.  “The first step is to collect pictures of the entire skin of the aircraft thanks to the drone. The drone does not require a pilot as it is automated and uses a unique laser technology to position itself. The second step is to process and analyze the images thanks to Donecle’s software which automatically generates reports on defects, paint quality and markings. The third step is to store the data and reports on the cloud platform to be able to build a digital history of the aircraft and keep track of past inspections.”  The data collected is completely secure and redundantly backed up.  The drones fly along predetermined routes specifically designed around each aircraft.  They need no pilots or GPS, but rely on a patented laser positioning technology.  This system allows airlines to get a complete picture of the status of their planes in real time, whenever needed.

After a three month trial at LATAM’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile, Donecle will now begin full scale inspections on LATAM’s fleet of more than 300 aircraft.  Alexandre Peronti, Director of Maintenance at LATAM Airlines Brasil, said “This is a project that reinforces our pioneering approach in Latin America for the implementation of a brand new aircraft inspection method. It is a privilege having the opportunity to test this advanced technology, which has already helped us gain efficiency and elevated our Quality and Safety standards.”  Josselin Bequet, CEO & Co-founder at Donecle went on to say, “We are very proud to count LATAM as a new customer and expand our operations in South America.”  Prior to this collaboration with LATAM Bequet had said, “Our current clients are essentially in Europe and North America.  We also have several projects underway on military aircraft.”  The bottom line is that aircraft inspections are needed to keep our skies safe.  Now, as Donecle has proven, this process can be made more efficient and accurate with use of drone technologies.