Aircraft maintenance
and related trades
Aircraft maintenance and related trades fit, service, repair and overhaul aircraft engines and assemblies. Licensed aircraft engineers are coded to Unit Group 3113.
- Employees (UK)
- 12k
- Median annual pay
- £44,704
- Exposure score ?
- 0.6/10 Minimal 5.0/10 Moderate strict reading, with tools is 5.0/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.6/10
- Wage exposure
- £32m £268m
Higher exposure than 31% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
A real share of the task list is within reach, especially drafting, summarising, research and analysis. People in this role who learn to direct AI well will pull ahead of those who do not.
If you are in this role
Treat AI like a capable junior you manage. Where you would hand a task to a junior with a clear brief, AI can do it now. Spend the time you get back on judgement and relationships.
Where the work usually starts.
These are the most important tasks a language model can already handle directly. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around them, so they stop eating the team's time.
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Read and interpret maintenance manuals, service bulletins, and other specifications to determine the feasibility and method of repairing or replacing malfunctioning or damaged components.
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Maintain repair logs, documenting all preventive and corrective aircraft maintenance.
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Read and interpret pilots' descriptions of problems to diagnose causes.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Read and interpret maintenance manuals, service bulletins, and other specifications to determine the feasibility and method of repairing or replacing malfunctioning or damaged components.
-
Maintain repair logs, documenting all preventive and corrective aircraft maintenance.
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Inspect airframes for wear or other defects.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians" (49-3011.00).
What AI can already do
3 of 38 tasks, unaided
Read and interpret maintenance manuals, service bulletins, and other specifications to determine the feasibility and method of repairing or replacing malfunctioning or damaged components.
Maintain repair logs, documenting all preventive and corrective aircraft maintenance.
Read and interpret pilots' descriptions of problems to diagnose causes.
What still needs a person
35 of 38 tasks
Inspect completed work to certify that maintenance meets standards and that aircraft are ready for operation.
Examine and inspect aircraft components, including landing gear, hydraulic systems, and deicers to locate cracks, breaks, leaks, or other problems.
Conduct routine and special inspections as required by regulations.
Replace or repair worn, defective, or damaged components, using hand tools, gauges, and testing equipment.
Inspect airframes for wear or other defects.
Check for corrosion, distortion, and invisible cracks in the fuselage, wings, and tail, using x-ray and magnetic inspection equipment.
Measure parts for wear, using precision instruments.
Remove or install aircraft engines, using hoists or forklift trucks.
Service and maintain aircraft and related apparatus by performing activities such as flushing crankcases, cleaning screens, and or moving parts.
Test operation of engines and other systems, using test equipment, such as ignition analyzers, compression checkers, distributor timers, or ammeters.
Assemble and install electrical, plumbing, mechanical, hydraulic, and structural components and accessories, using hand or power tools.
Reassemble engines following repair or inspection and reinstall engines in aircraft.
Maintain, repair, and rebuild aircraft structures, functional components, and parts, such as wings and fuselage, rigging, hydraulic units, oxygen systems, fuel systems, electrical systems, gaskets, or seals.
Measure the tension of control cables.
Determine repair limits for engine hot section parts.
Obtain fuel and oil samples and check them for contamination.
Examine engines through specially designed openings while working from ladders or scaffolds, or use hoists or lifts to remove the entire engine from an aircraft.
Listen to operating engines to detect and diagnose malfunctions, such as sticking or burned valves.
Remove or cut out defective parts or drill holes to gain access to internal defects or damage, using drills and punches.
Communicate with other workers to coordinate fitting and alignment of heavy parts, or to facilitate processing of repair parts.
Inventory and requisition or order supplies, parts, materials, and equipment.
Clean, refuel, and change oil in line service aircraft.
Modify aircraft structures, space vehicles, systems, or components, following drawings, schematics, charts, engineering orders, and technical publications.
Disassemble engines and inspect parts, such as turbine blades or cylinders, for corrosion, wear, warping, cracks, and leaks, using precision measuring instruments, x-rays, and magnetic inspection equipment.
Clean engines, sediment bulk and screens, and carburetors, adjusting carburetor float levels.
Remove, inspect, repair, and install in-flight refueling stores and external fuel tanks.
Install and align repaired or replacement parts for subsequent riveting or welding, using clamps and wrenches.
Accompany aircraft on flights to make in-flight adjustments and corrections.
Locate and mark dimensions and reference lines on defective or replacement parts, using templates, scribes, compasses, and steel rules.
Spread plastic film over areas to be repaired to prevent damage to surrounding areas.
Fabricate defective sections or parts, using metal fabricating machines, saws, brakes, shears, and grinders.
Clean, strip, prime, and sand structural surfaces and materials to prepare them for bonding.
Trim and shape replacement body sections to specified sizes and fits and secure sections in place, using adhesives, hand tools, and power tools.
Cure bonded structures, using portable or stationary curing equipment.
Prepare and paint aircraft surfaces.
Tasks via O*NET "Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians" (49-3011.00).
What AI can already do
7 of 38 tasks, with tools
Read and interpret maintenance manuals, service bulletins, and other specifications to determine the feasibility and method of repairing or replacing malfunctioning or damaged components.
Maintain repair logs, documenting all preventive and corrective aircraft maintenance.
Inspect airframes for wear or other defects.
Check for corrosion, distortion, and invisible cracks in the fuselage, wings, and tail, using x-ray and magnetic inspection equipment.
Read and interpret pilots' descriptions of problems to diagnose causes.
Inventory and requisition or order supplies, parts, materials, and equipment.
Disassemble engines and inspect parts, such as turbine blades or cylinders, for corrosion, wear, warping, cracks, and leaks, using precision measuring instruments, x-rays, and magnetic inspection equipment.
What still needs a person
31 of 38 tasks
Inspect completed work to certify that maintenance meets standards and that aircraft are ready for operation.
Examine and inspect aircraft components, including landing gear, hydraulic systems, and deicers to locate cracks, breaks, leaks, or other problems.
Conduct routine and special inspections as required by regulations.
Replace or repair worn, defective, or damaged components, using hand tools, gauges, and testing equipment.
Measure parts for wear, using precision instruments.
Remove or install aircraft engines, using hoists or forklift trucks.
Service and maintain aircraft and related apparatus by performing activities such as flushing crankcases, cleaning screens, and or moving parts.
Test operation of engines and other systems, using test equipment, such as ignition analyzers, compression checkers, distributor timers, or ammeters.
Assemble and install electrical, plumbing, mechanical, hydraulic, and structural components and accessories, using hand or power tools.
Reassemble engines following repair or inspection and reinstall engines in aircraft.
Maintain, repair, and rebuild aircraft structures, functional components, and parts, such as wings and fuselage, rigging, hydraulic units, oxygen systems, fuel systems, electrical systems, gaskets, or seals.
Measure the tension of control cables.
Determine repair limits for engine hot section parts.
Obtain fuel and oil samples and check them for contamination.
Examine engines through specially designed openings while working from ladders or scaffolds, or use hoists or lifts to remove the entire engine from an aircraft.
Listen to operating engines to detect and diagnose malfunctions, such as sticking or burned valves.
Remove or cut out defective parts or drill holes to gain access to internal defects or damage, using drills and punches.
Communicate with other workers to coordinate fitting and alignment of heavy parts, or to facilitate processing of repair parts.
Clean, refuel, and change oil in line service aircraft.
Modify aircraft structures, space vehicles, systems, or components, following drawings, schematics, charts, engineering orders, and technical publications.
Clean engines, sediment bulk and screens, and carburetors, adjusting carburetor float levels.
Remove, inspect, repair, and install in-flight refueling stores and external fuel tanks.
Install and align repaired or replacement parts for subsequent riveting or welding, using clamps and wrenches.
Accompany aircraft on flights to make in-flight adjustments and corrections.
Locate and mark dimensions and reference lines on defective or replacement parts, using templates, scribes, compasses, and steel rules.
Spread plastic film over areas to be repaired to prevent damage to surrounding areas.
Fabricate defective sections or parts, using metal fabricating machines, saws, brakes, shears, and grinders.
Clean, strip, prime, and sand structural surfaces and materials to prepare them for bonding.
Trim and shape replacement body sections to specified sizes and fits and secure sections in place, using adhesives, hand tools, and power tools.
Cure bonded structures, using portable or stationary curing equipment.
Prepare and paint aircraft surfaces.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Skilled trades occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons