Recently, I visited the Japan Airlines (JAL) Maintenance Facility located inside Haneda Airport. There are dedicated staff members explaining aviation knowledge, allowing you to observe aircraft and the inside of the maintenance facility up close. Best of all, it’s completely free—quite a bargain, isn’t it? I recommend everyone to go and take a look if you have the chance. To participate, you need to make a reservation in advance online. The website is here. You can also find an overall introduction to this tour on the official website.

To promote aviation knowledge, JAL has built a small museum within the maintenance facility called “JAL Factory Tour SKY MUSEUM”. Inside, there is JAL’s history and introductions to various maintenance crew, as well as a DC9 cockpit from an older aircraft where you can sit in the pilot’s seat and experience the feeling of being a pilot,

and a souvenir shop, among other things.

The tour begins in a large classroom with an introduction to some basic aircraft knowledge, such as why airplanes can fly, how much fuel common models consume, their weight, passenger capacity, and the aircraft manufacturing production line. Then, you can enter the two maintenance hangars next door. In the first hangar, you can only look out from the 2nd-floor observation deck,

but in the second hangar, you can enter the interior and observe the aircraft and the maintenance crew’s work up close from the ground. For example, this Boeing 777-200, registration JA008D, rolled out in 1998, making it 15 years old.

So, just keep taking photos; there are no restrictions anyway.

For instance, with this nose landing gear, you can see many details much more clearly.

The feeling under the 777’s main wing is great, very spectacular, isn’t it?

Take a look near the main landing gear.

And check out the massive engines.

Then wander over to the tail; getting that close to the APU exhaust is thrilling.

Another highlight of the maintenance facility is watching aircraft take off and land from the main gate, since the hangar is right next to the Runway.

It looks like the maintenance facility's main gate is the most popular spot during the tour.

Another interesting photo is this bicycle. Because the factory area is so large, staff members ride bicycles to get around conveniently.

The tour lasts 90 minutes. After it ends, you can continue wandering around the SKY MUSEUM. Since I was already there, I bought a calendar and desk calendar for next year as souvenirs, and played an aircraft ground guidance simulation game.

Then I went to eat lunch at Haneda Airport and took a few photos while I was at it. For example, this Shanghai Airlines Boeing 757 is a rare sight, isn’t it? And this JAL shark-livered aircraft is also quite rare to see. Quite a fruitful day.

The End