Some aspects of aviation university graduates’ work permit to maintain civil aircraft

This review article addresses issues regarding obtaining qualification necessary for permitting aviation engineering university graduates to maintain aircraft. It is associated with the need to undergo retraining for the aircraft type in airlines. This need is caused by the processes that took place in the Russian Federation in the period after the collapse of the aviation industry system in the USSR. The main of the processes were the transition from on-service life aircraft maintenance system to on-condition aircraft maintenance system, the introduction of Western operating standards due to the market influx with Western aircraft, as well as the general trend of harmonization of aviation standards regulating the aircraft maintenance and repair. The article analyses why this happens and the way it affects the training of future maintenance specialists in airlines. It is emphasized that the use of computing capabilities of modern compact onboard computers with huge databases, high performance, as well as the use of artificial intelligence, made it possible not only to analyze many operational and technical parameters of aircraft functional systems, to assess the aircraft operational ability as a whole, but also to accurately predict the aircraft technical condition in the near future, to optimize the maintenance staff activities, reducing operating costs, downtime due to malfunctions. The appearance of Western aircraft in our country was accompanied by the introduction of best western operational and maintenance practices. This also affected the system of training maintenance specialists. The use of foreign aircraft and Western documentation regulating their flight and technical operation within the Russian jurisdiction inevitably required a revision of the operational documentation in the Russian Federation, which was legislatively approved by the Russian aviation authorities. Such basic documents concerning the aircraft operation in the Russian Federation were harmonized with Western standards.