Skip to content

Built by a base maintenance engineer at British Airways

Aircraft maintenance,one clear step at a time.

It is a $136bn industry running out of engineers, and it still pays them to dig through manuals. RatchIt lays out the whole job on one screen: every step in order, every warning at its step, the drawing and part number in place, and an AI that answers from your manuals.

Talk to DanteWatch 60 seconds
An engineer on a fuel pump removal types: which nut comes off first? The AI answers: none first, opposite pairs, half a turn each for two rounds, 1 and 2, then 3 and 4, then 5 and 6, then take them all off, and a drawing of the pump mount lights up the studs in that order. The answer carries its AMM and IPC references.

Demo job, illustrative

  • Built to run inside your network

    Designed so no manual leaves the building

  • Built on your licensed manuals

    AMM · IPC · WDM · SRM

  • Every answer referenced

    Task, step and figure

  • The engineer still signs

    A tick is not a sign-off

01The hunt

Today an engineer opens six windows before step one: a shared terminal, the AMM task, five linked tasks, the parts catalogue, the wiring book and the printer. My estimate from the hangar floor is about forty minutes before the first spanner turns. With RatchIt it is one job on one screen.

Six windows before step one.

02The job

Seventeen pages go in.One clear job comes out.

One real fuel pump task runs to 17 pages, 110 numbered steps with their sub-steps, 13 other tasks and 13 warnings and cautions. Long, tangled and easy to miss a step. RatchIt lays it out so it is easy to follow.

Counted from one real AMM task

Engine fuel pump removal

Step 1 of 6

Warning

Breakers stay pulled and tagged until the job closes.

AMM 3.A

Pull and tag the breakers

Pull the four breakers in Table 1. Tag every one.

Fig 1 · Breaker panel

Breaker tags, 4

Ask the AI about this step

Demo job, illustrative and shortened

  1. Every step, in order

    The whole job from top to bottom. Tick one and the next one opens.

  2. Warnings clearly labelled

    Each warning and caution lands above its step, before the step opens.

  3. Plain to follow

    One instruction at a time, with its manual reference on it.

  4. The drawing and the part

    On the step, there and then. No second window.

  5. The AI, when you are stuck

    Ask about the step you are on, typed or out loud.

03Ask the AI

Your engineers ask the AI.The manual answers.

  • Ask out loud or type
  • Knows the step they’re on
  • Reads only your manuals
  • Says when the manual doesn’t
  • Question: how long can the pump sit in the tray? Answer: The manual gives no time, so I won’t guess. The only limit here: blank the gearbox pad within 15 minutes. References: AMM 73-12-11 · 3.F.
  • Question: what’s the part number for the pad gasket? Answer: RT-73-0612. Item 2 on Fig 6, the blanking plate gasket. References: IPC 73-12-11 · Fig 6 item 2.
  • Question: which breakers do I need to pull? Answer: Four. P11-04-C7, P11-04-C9, P6-02-B3 and P6-02-B5. Tag every one. References: AMM 73-12-11 · Table 1, WDM 73-21-11.

04See it work

From 17 pages to one clear job.

05The cost

What the hunt costs you.

Drag it. Use your own numbers.

£587,000

a year, spent searching

Of every 8-hour shift

8%

Paid hours
14,700
The work of
8.3engineers

100 engineers × 1 job × 40 min × £40/h × 220 shifts

Illustrative defaults, not a customer result. Forty minutes is my estimate from the floor. Engineer equivalent assumes 8-hour shifts.

06The market

Why now.

More work

$193bn

Global MRO demand. 2036 is a forecast.

Global MRO demand: $136bn in 2025, forecast $193bn in 2036.

Source: Oliver Wyman, 2026, ARSA summary

Fewer people

41%

of US certified mechanics are over 60

728,000

new technicians needed worldwide in 20 years

Source: Oliver Wyman, 2026, Boeing, 2026

Older aircraft

17,000

aircraft on order, unfilled

Over 12 years to clear at today’s build rate. So airlines keep older aircraft flying for longer.

Source: Oliver Wyman, 2026

Who buys it

5,039

civil MRO firms worldwide

428,664

civil MRO maintenance employees worldwide

Source: Oliver Wyman and ARSA, 2026

07The founder

I fix aircraft.I ship software.

I’m a base maintenance engineer at British Airways. I’ve watched good engineers lose forty minutes to a terminal and a printer, job after job. RatchIt is the fix.

Four years building products alone. No team, no funding, no investors. Real paying customers.

  • British Airways and Ryanair hangars
  • First-class BSc, aircraft maintenance
  • Master’s, aviation engineering and management

Dante Leon · Founder, RatchIt

Talk to Dante

Engineers already pay for what I build

Prep66

Part 66 exam prep for EASA and UK CAA licences, written from the ground up.

paying subscribers every month since
UK + EU
from the August 2026 launch to first paying subscriber
9 days
ad spend, one Reddit post
£0
questions across 13 modules
25,000+
mock exams
39
to build
~3 weeks
  • PrepAMT: the same for FAA A&P. Built in four days.
  • ChatGPT recommends Prep66 by name for B1.1.

That’s what I ship on my own. RatchIt is next.

08The plan

One job. Then the industry.

  1. Today

    One job

    Fuel pump removal. Demo built.

  2. 2Backing funds this

    One aircraft type

    Inside one MRO, on its own manuals.

  3. 3Then

    One whole hangar

    Every type on the floor.

  4. 4Then

    Every MRO

    5,039 civil MRO firms. Then the airlines.

Forty minutes.Job after job.Let’s take them back.

  • You back aviation companies

    Fund step two: one aircraft type.

    Talk to Dante

  • You run aircraft engineering

    Bring one job. See the hours it gives back.

    Bring one job