American Airlines is becoming the first carrier to install automatic identification technology (AIT) on civilian aircraft by attaching contact memory buttons to replaceable structural components, such as doors, stabilizers, rudders and elevators (lower photo). Doing this will allow the carrier to monitor the components' individual histories more efficiently because the high-memory-capacity buttons—which are about the size of a dime—enable automated data collection, which can save labor costs and improve data accuracy.
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