Boeing

Richard G. Higgins, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group vice president of Maintenance Engineering and Publications, has received the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Safety Award from the publisher of Aviation Week magazine.

The award, presented at last week's European Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Conference in Shannon, Ireland, recognized Higgins' role in leading efforts to digitize maintenance and technical documents, and to provide online access to much of this information.

In accepting the award, Higgins congratulated publisher, McGraw-Hill, for recognizing the contribution of information technology to air transport safety.

"Because of information technology, those who operate and maintain jet fleets can count on fast access to the most current information," Higgins said. "That helps reduce down time, increases the likelihood of making the right fix the first time and supports high levels of fleet reliability for greater safety and efficiency."

Higgins leads a 1,400-member group responsible for producing a broad range of airplane maintenance programs and information, including manuals, repair documents, ground-support equipment designs and digital data products and services.

The digital offerings produced by Higgins' group replace paper and microfilmed documents with versions that are on compact disks or accessible online. They are available as a family of products and services under the trade name Boeing Digital, and include Boeing On-Line Delivery, the Portable Maintenance Aid and Boeing Digital Technical Documents.

Higgins, a Mercer Island resident, joined Boeing in 1979. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Maine and an MBA from Seattle University.