From the correspondence columns of the JOURNAL it is obvious that there is a great deal of interest in the present-day standard of maintenance design and that the general consensus of opinion is that it is not up to a high enough standard.

In order to stimulate still further the interest in design for maintenance the following series of questions are asked. These questions are the thoughts that run through the mind of a maintenance engineer when he is introduced to a new item of equipment. The perfect maintenance design is extremely rare, i.e. when all the questions can be answered in a satisfactory manner.

It is easy to produce what seems to be an efficient design on paper but the conditions of a well-lit and well-heated drawing office are different from an unheated hangar early in the morning of a winter day.

The importance of maintenance being considered right through all the design stages is even more vital these days, when the number of aircraft being manufactured is less than during the war years and the economic side is just as important as the performance figures. In fact, the words “economy” and “maintenance” are bound together. It is not possible to issue modifications in order to correct faulty maintenance design and still keep a high percentage of aircraft flying.