Air Transport Association Specification No. 100

Since 1 June 1956, the Air Transport Association of America (ATA) has used a specification to establish a standard for the presentation of technical data by aircraft, engine or component manufacturers that is required for their respective products. This specification is known as ATA Specification No.100 (ATA 100) and its two chapters clarify the general requirements of the aircraft industry, with reference to the coverage, preparation and organisation of all technical data.

Chapter 2 of the ATA 100 covers policies and standards applicable to specific manuals. It details the names and contents of the various manuals that must be prepared by the manufacturer. Such manuals include the:

• Aircraft Maintenance Manual
• Wiring Diagrams
• Structural Repair Manual
• Aircraft Illustrated Parts Catalogue
• Component Maintenance Manual
• Illustrated Tool and Equipment Manual
• Service Bulletins
• Weight and Balance Manual
• Non-Destructive Testing Manual
• Power Plant Build-up Manual
• Aircraft Recovery Manual
• Fault Reporting and Fault Isolation Manuals
• Engine Manual
• Engine Illustrated Parts Catalogue.

Chapter 1 of the ATA 100 covers policies and standards applicable to all publications and provides a uniform method for arranging technical material within the relevant publications, in an effort to simplify the technician’s problem in locating instructions and parts.

In the ‘Arrangement of Material’ section, in Chapter 1 (1-2) of the ATA 100, the standard details the use of a three-element identifier number. Each element of the identifying number consists of two digits. The first element is designed to provide identification of all topics or systems within the respective manuals, by reference to specific chapters. The second element identifies sub-systems (subtopics) as sections, while the third element identifies associated sub-sub-systems (sub-sub topics) as subjects.

The following table illustrates an example of how the ATA 100 numbering system (in this instance using numbers ranging from 27-00-00 to 27-31-14) is used to identify the material which is covered at particular locations within a typical maintenance manual.

TABLE

The subject is broken down yet further – into Page Blocks – to provide maintenance personnel with more detailed information on specific topics/subtopics, which relate to the subject material.

The following table shows an example of a page block system along with the topics and subtopics, which are allocated to the relevant page block numbers.

TABLE

Note: The word ‘effectivity’ is used to identify the aircraft serial number or manufacturer’s serial number (MSN) or aircraft model to which a particular subject topic may refer and those numbers will be shown. If the word ‘all’ appears adjacent to the ‘effectivity’, then the information concerns all types of aircraft (or components), regardless of any serial numbers.

Chapter 1 of the ATA 100 also details the policies and standards applicable to all publications with reference to the:

• Physical Requirements: Format of media (Paper, Film, Page layout/numbering etc.) and Indexing (List of Effective Pages [LEPs], Table of Contents [TOC], Text, Divider Cards, Sequence, etc.)
• Issuance and Revision Service
• Aircraft and Engine Zoning: Access Door, Port, Panel and Area identification.

Many airlines and similar companies also organise their spare parts in stores departments under the relevant ATA specification numbers and irrespective of the aircraft type, information on similar components will be found in the same Chapter and Section. A complete table of the ATA numbering system, subsystem and titles allows the technician to precisely establish, where the information required can be found in the respective manuals.