Digital Aircraft Records Management: Are Electronic Aircraft Records Legal Under FAA Rules?

Last reviewed June 16, 2026 · By Chad Griffith

Yes. Electronic aircraft maintenance records and electronic signatures are legal. 14 CFR 43.9 sets the required content, not the medium, and FAA Advisory Circular AC 120-78B gives an acceptable means for digital records and signatures, provided the system preserves integrity, attributes each signature uniquely, controls access, and stays reproducible for the full 14 CFR 91.417 retention period.

Are electronic aircraft maintenance records actually legal?

Yes. There is no FAA regulation that requires aircraft maintenance records to be kept on paper. The recordkeeping rule for maintenance, preventive maintenance, rebuilding, and alteration is 14 CFR 43.9, and it specifies the content of each record, not the medium. Each record must contain a description of the work performed (or a reference to acceptable data), the date the work was completed, the name of the person who performed the work, and the signature, certificate number, and kind of certificate held by the person approving the aircraft for return to service. Nothing in 43.9 or 14 CFR 91.417 says that content has to live on a paper page. The FAA has accepted electronic recordkeeping for years and formalized an acceptable means of compliance in Advisory Circular AC 120-78. So the legal question is not whether you can go digital, it is how your digital system has to behave to be acceptable.

What FAA AC 120-78B requires of an electronic records system

The governing guidance is AC 120-78B, "Electronic Signatures, Electronic Recordkeeping, and Electronic Manuals," issued May 30, 2023 (it superseded the now-cancelled AC 120-78A). An Advisory Circular is guidance rather than a binding regulation, but it describes an FAA-accepted means of compliance, so meeting it is the safe path. The core principle is that an electronic record must provide equivalent or better data integrity, accuracy, and accessibility than the paper record it replaces. In practice that means four things. Integrity: the system must protect records from unauthorized or undetected alteration, and the underlying record data and audit logs should be permanent and not user-alterable. Access and legibility: records must be reproducible and readable on demand, including the ability to produce a clean copy for an FAA inspector. Access control and security: role-based controls should ensure only authorized users can view or change records. Retention: the electronic system must hold the record for as long as the underlying rule requires.

What makes an electronic signature valid for aircraft records

An electronic signature is the part operators most often get wrong, and AC 120-78B is specific about it. A valid electronic signature must be unique to one individual and traceable to that specific person, never shared or generic. It must be under the sole control of the signer, typically through a password-protected account, and it must require a deliberate signing action with the signer prompted before the signature is affixed. The system must preserve the integrity of the signed record so the signature cannot be moved to a different document or altered after the fact, and it should capture a timestamp and the signer's certificate information. The end goal is non-repudiation: the design must prevent a signer from later denying that they signed a particular record. A typed name in a spreadsheet cell does not meet this bar; a controlled, logged, attributable signing event does.

Retention does not change when you go paperless (14 CFR 91.417)

Going digital does not shorten how long you keep records. 14 CFR 91.417 retention rules apply to the content regardless of format. Records of routine maintenance, preventive maintenance, alterations, and required or approved inspections must be retained until the work is repeated, superseded by other work, or for one year after it was performed, whichever comes first. A second category must be retained and transferred with the aircraft when it is sold: total time in service, current status of life-limited parts, time since last overhaul on items overhauled on a specified interval, current inspection status, the current status of applicable airworthiness directives, and a copy of the forms for each major alteration. A digital system has to reliably preserve and reproduce all of this for the full required period, which is precisely why integrity and backup matter as much as the act of scanning.

Maintenance-tracking system vs. records-and-proof layer: know the difference

"Digital aircraft records" gets used for two different jobs, and conflating them is the most common buyer mistake. A maintenance-tracking or digital-logbook system (the category Bluetail, CAMP, Veryon, and similar tools occupy) is your authoritative aircraft logbook of record: it builds the chronological airframe and engine timeline, tracks component times and cycles, and forecasts when inspections come due. A records-and-proof layer answers a different question: when an inspector or buyer asks for a specific record, can you find it, prove it maps to the right CFR requirement, and show it has not lapsed? Most operators are not missing a logbook, they are missing fast, organized, audit-ready access to the supporting documents scattered across email, drives, and shared folders. Decide which gap you are actually closing before you buy, because one tool rarely does both jobs well.

Where FileFlo fits in your digital records stack

FileFlo is the records-and-proof layer, not a maintenance-tracking system or your authoritative logbook. It connects to the cloud storage you already use, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, or SharePoint, and reads each document where it lives. As files arrive, FileFlo classifies them, ties each to the relevant 14 CFR citation, surfaces expiration and currency status, and lets you export a clean, organized audit binder on demand, which is exactly the "reproducible and accessible" behavior AC 120-78B expects from a digital records process. It is built to make supporting documents findable and provable, sitting alongside, not replacing, your logbook of record. In plain terms: keep your maintenance-tracking system for the timeline; use FileFlo to prove the underlying documents are present, correctly categorized, and current. Pricing is $89 and $299 per month with a 5-day free trial. Note for procurement: FileFlo is not SOC 2 certified, so weigh that against your internal security requirements.

A practical checklist for moving from paper to digital records

If you are planning a paperless transition, work through these before you flip the switch. 1. Confirm content, not just images. Each digitized record still needs the 43.9 elements: work description, completion date, performer, and the approving signature with certificate number and kind. 2. Use real electronic signatures. Unique to the signer, under their sole control, timestamped, attributable, and tamper-evident, per AC 120-78B. 3. Lock down integrity. Records and audit logs should be protected from undetected change, with role-based access. 4. Plan backups and redundancy. The FAA expects equivalent-or-better reliability than paper, so a single un-backed-up drive is a liability. 5. Prove reproducibility. You must be able to produce a legible copy of any required record on demand for an inspector. 6. Honor 91.417 retention. Keep the right records for one year or until superseded, and preserve the transfer-with-aircraft set for the life of the airframe. 7. Talk to your principal inspector early. Especially for Part 135 operators, coordinate the electronic recordkeeping approach so there are no surprises during a records review.

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