Application of Virtual Reality Method in Aircraft Maintenance Service—Taking Dornier 228 as an Example

Abstract

Flight safety and airlines operation have been at the center of research since aircraft were first invented, as even slight errors in aircraft maintenance may cause serious accidents. Thus, aircraft maintenance is critical to the aviation industry all the time. To prevent maintenance errors, it is important to train for aviation maintenance. Therefore, an aircraft maintenance virtual reality (AMVR) system was developed in this study. For a Dornier-228 aircraft, a walk-around visual inspection of its fuel system was designed and tested in a virtual environment. For the system, CATIA V5 and Unity 3D software were used for designing the 3D model of the aircraft and developing the visual environment, respectively. With the software, the visual environment of the aircraft hangar was created for the system. The developed system was tested by students to validate the effectiveness of using the AMVR system in training. The students acknowledged that the system was beneficial to their learning, which proved that the developed system is highly effective for training students to improve aircraft maintenance skills.