Landing gear control with AI — the pattern is already proven at an aeronautical Tier 1.
A landing gear is not signed off on intuition: it is signed off because the file is complete. iLEAN combines computer vision on the part, OCR of the stamped traceability, voice assistance for the operator and autonomous dossier agents per serial number. A pattern already deployed in an aeronautical plant even before the generative-AI boom. The quality manager puts the signature.
The gear is signed off on the dossier, and the dossier lives in five systems.
The quality control manager at a landing gear manufacturer knows that every part they sign is a personal responsibility, traced for life. And they also know where the truth of each step lives:
- The raw material — heat lot of the steel or titanium, the supplier's mill cert. ERP + PDFs.
- The machining — CNC parameters, stamped serial number, inspection photos. Some in SCADA, others in a folder.
- The NDT — liquid penetrant, ultrasound, magnetic particle. The lab's vertical software.
- Treatment and coating — the furnace recipe, chrome plating, shot blasting. Each with its own system.
- The veteran's knowledge — the "I chromed this tube myself and it's perfect" that no system captures.
The classic system works 99% of the time. And still, every time the AS9100 auditor asks to reconstruct the dossier of a part from two years ago, the quality team spends weeks assembling a PDF that should have been alive from day one.
iLEAN does not add a sixth system — it seals the cracks between the ones you already have.
The landing gear control problem is not a lack of information: it is information in islands that, at the moment of the quality sign-off, never quite reaches the same file. iLEAN acts as the putty that fills those gaps, without asking you to change your MES, your ERP, your NDT software or your quality platform.
Edge sees the part and reads the marking. Connect captures the operator's voice and data from old machines. The agent assembles the evidence pack per serial number and, if something is missing, holds the part. The person signs — never the other way round.
The three iLEAN pieces applied to landing gear control:
- Edge — terminals with machine vision (CNN) at the critical stations: post-machining, post-chrome, post-shot-blasting inspection. OCR reading of the stamped traceability (heat lot + serial number). Detection of out-of-range marks, missing coating, visible corrosion. It works without a network. A 45 ms actuator if a hold is needed.
- Connect — captures the operator's voice at the line (full-duplex earpiece), digitizes the panels of old machines, reads the NDT software log even if it is a vertical system, captures the supplier's mill certs whether they arrive by email or PDF. Voice assistance for the operator works both ways: the agent talks to them, the operator dictates back.
- Agent — cross-references raw material, machining, NDT, treatment, coating, assembly and the human signature. Assembles the evidence pack per part serial number. If any step is missing, it holds before shipment and alerts the quality manager on whatever channel they use. The person signs; the part never releases on its own.
Manual control with a rebuilt dossier vs. cross-referenced control with iLEAN
| Aspect | Manual control + dossier at the end | With iLEAN Edge + Connect + Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Stamped traceability | Operator writes down the serial number by hand | Edge OCR reads it and archives the image |
| Part inspection | Veteran's eye + NDT report in vertical software | Edge vision + integration with NDT software |
| Operator assistance | Call to the shift lead | Full-duplex earpiece, the agent talks to them |
| Raw material (heat lot) | Supplier PDF in a folder | Mill cert indexed to the part's serial number |
| Dossier for the AS9100 auditor | Rebuilt by hand, weeks | Live pack per serial number, automatic |
| The veteran's knowledge | Leaves with retirement | Pattern learned by Edge — permanent capability |
Impact estimate for your plant — to be validated with your numbers.
The block below is an estimate to be validated with the specific data of your plant. We put it forward so the committee has an order of magnitude; we refine it during the diagnostic.
- AS9100 aeronautical Tier 2 with mixed production of shock strut tubes, forks and axles. Vertical NDT software and a consolidated quality platform.
- Edge pilot at the post-machining inspection station + marking OCR + Connect on the operator's voice + dossier agent per serial number. First value expected within a few weeks.
- Indicative payback between 4 and 9 months, depending on the quality hours spent today assembling audit dossiers and the frequency of defects detected late in chrome plating/shot blasting.
- Reduction in hours spent assembling audit dossiers: conservative estimate ≥ 30%. The hard lever is the live pack that shields the quality signature.
And the quality data point for the committee
"What if the AI gets it wrong and lets a defective part through?" — hallucination is a problem of free generation, not of anchored tasks. In tasks where the AI merely reads a marking, compares an image against a reference pattern and recontextualizes a piece of data from one system to another, the best models brought error below 1.5% [1]. And even so, the critical part is never signed off alone: iLEAN holds and the person signs. The three safety rings exist precisely for this.
[1] OpenAI paper "Why Language Models Hallucinate", 2025 — on the reliability of AI in anchored tasks.
What people ask about landing gear control with AI
What does the AI control on a landing gear?
Everything that creates today's certification bottleneck: visual inspection of machined parts (shock strut tubes, forks, axles), OCR of the traceability engraved on the part (heat lot, serial number), voice assistance for the operator at the station, and autonomous dossier agents that assemble the evidence pack per serial number. iLEAN closes the see-read-assist-document loop in a single piece; the inspector signs.
How does it integrate with AS9100 and EASA Part 21?
iLEAN does not replace your quality system: it feeds its evidence. The agent cross-references, per serial number: raw material certificates (heat lot, mill cert), machining parameters, NDT evidence (liquid penetrant, ultrasound, magnetic particle), heat treatment, shot blasting/peening, coating, assembly and final tests. The pack is cryptographically signed and the human signature of the quality manager closes each batch. That is what the AS9100 auditor would ask you to reconstruct too late — and here it is already live.
Does it work with large parts — tubes, forks, axles — and not only small ones?
Yes. Edge is trained on real parts from your product family. For landing gear shock strut tubes, cameras are installed at the post-machining and post-chrome/treatment inspection stations; forks are inspected on a measuring bench with vision + a scanner if you have one; for axles, geometry and stamped traceability are validated. The initial immersion measures the baseline and the joint team defines the tolerances with your quality control manager. It is not a generic off-the-shelf model.
What do the documentation agents iLEAN deploys here actually do?
They are the "boring, concrete agent" — the one that assembles the evidence pack per serial number so nobody has to rebuild a PDF in a rush. They cross-reference: the batch's raw material certificate, the part's machining parameters, NDT readings with photos, heat treatment evidence, coating evidence, the quality inspector's signature, assembly data. If any step is missing, the agent holds the part before shipment and alerts the person in charge. The person signs; the line never releases on its own.
How much does it cost to implement AI control on a landing gear?
The order of magnitude of a pilot at an aeronautical manufacturer starts with an initial investment covering Edge terminals + cameras + integration with the ERP/MES and the quality platform, plus an annual license. The reasonable payback to present to the committee is several months — the hard lever is the reduction in quality time spent assembling audit dossiers plus the reduction in scrap from defects detected late. We ask for your plant's data and send you the estimated ROI in 48h, with your numbers, not ours.
Cross-links: aero propeller control · aero turbine control · NADCAP aerospace part traceability
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