Patent ID: 8356244

Claim:
A method for managing maintenance data for aircraft using computer implemented software executing programmed instructions residing in memory, comprising the steps of: (A) authoring original maintenance data relating to the aircraft, said original maintenance data authored by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), said authoring performed with a computer implemented XML editor executing programmed instructions residing in memory, said maintenance data only in a native format of Extensible Markup Language (XML), said maintenance data comprising XML documents and XML database content accessible by a relational database; (B) delivering a web application to an editing site over a network, said web application comprising an authoring module comprising said computer implemented XML editor, said web application comprising a tool for carrying out and managing maintenance services, said web application comprising executable programmed instructions stored in memory; (C) delivering the original maintenance data to the editing site in said XML format using the web application delivered in step (B); (D) allowing XML editing of the original maintenance data at the editing site, said editing performed with said computer implemented XML editor, said editing by a user of said web application, said editing of said XML documents and XML database content comprising said user manually entering data into an electronic form, said user comprising an end user of said original maintenance data, said user controlling with said XML editor access and distribution of said edited maintenance data to other end users of said edited maintenance data; (E) reconciling the edits made to the original maintenance data, using the web application delivered in step (B); and (F) publishing the edited maintenance data using the web application delivered in step (B) and allowing creation and management of task cards using a task module comprised by the tool, the task cards assisting in carrying out maintenance services and synchronizing with revisions to an airplane maintenance manual included in the edited XML documents.