RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Preserves Heritage of Iconic Second World War Aircraft with RWS

Defence Equipment and Support selects LiveContent S1000D to digitise all technical documentation for its fleet of aircraft for future generations of maintenance engineers

CHALFONT SAINT PETER, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RWS, the world’s leading provider of technology-enabled language, content management and intellectual property services, is helping the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) to preserve the heritage of its iconic Second World War aircraft by digitising its original paper-based technical documentation.

Based at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight maintains a fleet of iconic piston-engined aircraft to commemorate those who have fallen in the service of the United Kingdom, and to promote the RAF and inspire future generations of Service members. This fleet comprises six Spitfires, two Hurricanes, a Lancaster, a Douglas Dakota and two Chipmunk training aircraft.

Keeping these aircraft airworthy has become increasingly difficult with technicians retiring and the younger generation being only taught to use digital technical information, alongside the challenge of managing the original paper-based maintenance and support documentation.

“Our Second World War aircraft belong to the memory of all those who served for their country,” explains Wing Commander Andy March, Deputy Chief Engineer for the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Project Team. “Our role is to ensure that we maintain the integrity of these priceless artefacts to commemorate our fallen heroes, and inspire the next generation of Service members.”

The Defence Equipment and Support team (which equips and supports the UK's armed forces) took the decision in 2019 to digitally transform all maintenance manual and illustrated Parts Catalogue data into the ASD S1000D® specification, providing technicians and engineers with a new Interactive Electronic Technical Publication Viewing (IETP) solution. This will ensure that future generations of technicians will continue to sustain and maintain the aircraft's suitability for safe flight.

LiveContent S1000D will be help to reduce mean time to repair, facilitate the delivery of maintenance knowledge to the maintainer and keep these invaluable aircraft up-to-date and available.

“The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is taking an innovative approach to protecting and future-proofing its Second World War aircraft,” explains Thomas Labarthe, President of RWS’s Language Services and Technology division. “We’re extremely proud to be involved in this project and look forward to working closely with the organisation to ensure we’re supporting its digital future.”

RWS’s LiveContent product is an industry-proven Interactive Electronic Technical Publication/Manual (IETP/ IETM) solution that delivers interactive, visual maintenance content in real-time to end users. LiveContent surpasses traditional IETPs by supporting S1000D Issue 1.6 and above – as well as many other commercial and military data standards – all within the same platform.

You can learn more about our solutions for S1000D here.

About RWS

RWS Holdings plc is the world’s leading provider of technology-enabled language, content management and intellectual property services. We help our customers to connect with and bring new ideas to people globally by communicating business critical content at scale and enabling the protection and realisation of their innovations.

Our vision is to help organisations interact effectively with people anywhere in the world by solving their language, content and market access challenges through our collective global intelligence, deep expertise and smart technology.

Customers include 90 of the globe’s top 100 brands, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies and approximately half of the top 20 patent filers worldwide. Our client base spans Europe, Asia Pacific, and North and South America across the technology, pharmaceutical, medical, legal, chemical, automotive, government and telecommunications sectors, which we serve from offices across five continents.

Founded in 1958, RWS is headquartered in the UK and publicly listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).

For further information, please visit: www.rws.com