Forged paperwork was at the heart of a scandal outlined by Bloomberg News in September, where second-hand and knock-off nuts, bolts and turbine blades were sold for installation in jet engines made by Safran SA and General Electric Co. The discovery sent the industry rushing to identify more bogus parts, but the process is cumbersome and manual. This recent event is similar to a series of cases uncovered by a US Senate committee more than a decade ago that found numerous instances of fake chips being put into military aircraft.
By taking a photo of a piece — from a miniature screw to an engine cowling — startups such as Bellevue, Washington-based Alitheon Inc. can tell staff whether it’s on a list of genuine items. The system goes beyond basic image recognition, and is more akin to taking a human fingerprint.
