Boeing launches airplane maintenance iPad apps

Following more than a year of development in cooperation with a number of airlines, Boeing on Tuesday announced the release of a suite of new iPad apps centered on airplane maintenance, CNET reports. Boeing hopes the apps will help maintenance crews quickly find and fix issues to get airplanes back into operation with a minimum of delay.

The apps will debut at a European aviation conference this week in London. The past year of development for the app suite was aimed at ensuring that each has a user interface ideal for its purpose and will maximizes usability.

Included in the new maintenance apps are a toolbox mobile library providing access to maintenance documents, hyperlinks between multiple manuals and airline content, a parts almanac that contains information on an airline's most current inventory and other features. Alaska Airlines technicians estimate that using the iPad apps will save 4,000 pieces of paper per day.

Boeing is just the latest aviation company to integrate Apple's popular tablet into its operations. In 2012, American Airlines pilots started using iPads as flight bag replacements throughout all phases of flight, saving the company an estimated $1.2 million per year on fuel costs due to the decreased weight.