Top Features to Look for in Aircraft Jacks: A Buyer’s Guide

The airline industry is one of the biggest in the world and is responsible for the most popular and safest form of long-distance travel that tens of millions of people take advantage of every year. There are quite a few tools behind the scenes that keep things running, from ground support equipment to more specialized tools. One of these essential tools is the jack used for aircraft, and without it, you won’t be able to service your aircraft, so keep reading to find out how you can get the best jack for your needs.

1. Weight capacity

The important thing to look out for in most of the aircraft jacks you’ll find on the marketplace are the exact load and weight they can carry because, unless you want to get a ton of jacks of different types and sizes for your airport, you’ll want to get a few jacks that are versatile enough to handle light or heavy loads.

This is because commercial planes aren’t the only types that enter airports; there are many medium or small-sized jets, like private jets, that need to be serviced, and smaller jacks are used for that purpose. If you know your airport will be dealing mainly with smaller aircraft, then smaller jacks are more than suitable, and if not, a jack that can support heavy loads will do wonders for you.

2. Adjustability

The main use of a jack is to lift an aircraft off the ground and position it in the perfect spot, down to the last inch, to allow engineers and any other tools you may have to begin working on the plane. Achieving this perfect height is only possible if you get a jack that’s highly adjustable, which is why that’s another feature you should keep an eye out for. A jack that has a wide range of adjustability will provide greater versatility with more planes, and if it’s machine-controlled, it’ll help make every repair process that much easier.

3. Safety measures

Jacks are meant to handle thousands of pounds of weight at once, for hours at a time, and they get very few breaks between uses if your airport is popular enough. This is all to say that, after a few years of constant use, any jack can become prone to breaking and dropping the load it’s carrying, which is when the safety measures could prove to be the difference between a minor setback and millions of dollars of repairs. The safety measures you should look for in a jack include sensors and software that detect any issues, as well as a locking mechanism that can prevent a plane from falling if the main mechanism of the jack fails.

4. Ease of use

Jacks are tools that are widely used throughout airports, for countless repair processes, and by hundreds of different people over a set period. This is why a jack with easy-to-use features will do great in any setting and why you should keep an eye out for a jack that you won’t have to train anyone to use. The easier the control and the operation of the jack is, the faster and safer each repair process will be, providing a lot of benefits down the line. 

5. Durability 

As previously mentioned, jacks are widely used for each repair operation in an average airport and are relied on for that very reason. To get a high-quality jack, you may pay a heft sum, and you’ll need it to last long enough to get the best value for your money, which is where the durability consideration comes in. A more durable jack is one that incorporates stronger metals like steel with aluminum to keep the weight as low as possible without losing any strength, resulting in a tool you can use indefinitely for several years without worrying about it breaking. 

Conclusion

Airplanes are massive machines that cost several millions of dollars per unit and take some time to turn a profit. They need all the support they can get to stay flight-ready as often as possible and ensure they can travel anywhere the airline needs it to go. A core cog in the machine is the aircraft jack, and if you get the perfect one for your airport and your planes, you’ll be living much easier.