Why Delta Is Testing Airplane Structural Monitoring Sensors

Delta Air Lines installed sensors on the WiFi antenna area of an aircraft to test structural health monitoring. Could this be a step toward moving airframe MRO to a more predictive maintenance model, similar to that used by engines? David Piotrowski, Delta TechOps’ senior principal engineer, talks with Aviation Week’s Lee Ann Shay about how aircraft mainteannce could shift to data diven, tail-specific maintenance.