When an aircraft required maintenance,
mechanics would request the latest
engineering drawings for the particular aircraft
on which they were working. Library staff
would print hard copies of these drawings
using aperture card reader/printers. These
hard copies would then be distributed to the
maintenance technicians. If maintenance
was being performed at off-site facilities,
hard copies were sent via overnight courier,
incurring additional expenses and delays.
These delays associated with processing
paper drawings resulted in hundreds of
thousands of dollars in lost revenue for every
day an aircraft was grounded waiting for
maintenance.