The paper broadly addresses how Industry 4.0 program drivers will impact maintenance in aviation.
Specifically, Industry 4.0 practices most suitable to aeronautical maintenance are selected, and a detailed
exposure is provided. Advantages and open issues are widely discussed and case studies dealing with
realistic scenarios are illustrated to support what has been proposed by authors. The attention has been
oriented towards Augmented Reality and Additive Manufacturing technologies, which can support maintenance
tasks and spare parts production, respectively. The intention is to demonstrate that Augmented
Reality and Additive Manufacturing are viable tools in aviation maintenance, and while a strong effort is
necessary to develop an appropriate regulatory framework, mandatory before the wide-spread introduction
of these technologies in the aerospace systems maintenance process, there has been a great interest
and pull from the industry sector
