Jobs in Aviation: Aerodrome Systems Specialist

DALLAS - OK. You’ve always wanted to work at the airport. Who doesn’t? But, unfortunately, the pilot thing didn’t work out, and you’re not quite the flight attendant type. What are your options: baggage loader, food service, fueling planes, security? Yes, all are reasonable choices. 

But what if you are the type who likes to go hands-on, figuring out problems and finding solutions so that the whole place runs like clockwork? In that case, how about an airport engineer?

Meet Mohammad Taher, an aerospace engineer who works as the Aerodrome Systems Specialist at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). His job is to look after all the assets and the systems that are outside the terminal buildings, including the equipment on the airfield that interacts with aircraft, particularly from an electrical standpoint.

He is the subject matter expert, always looking for continuous improvement, understanding the things that have gone wrong in the past, figuring out how to prevent future occurrences, and working with the teams on the ground that maintain the equipment.

He’s the one who writes the maintenance schedules for the equipment and develops the maintenance strategy. Taher also keeps one eye on upcoming airport projects and works to understand how to leverage those projects to make LHR the most efficient airport possible.

In addition to his work at LHR, Taher is a TedX speaker and has an extensive social media presence. He’s Mo T, The Airport Guy on TikTok, mo_t_ivate on Instagram, and Mohammad Taher on YouTube. His LinkedIn profile says he is in the business of “inspiring future engineers through social media.” He’s an energetic and busy guy, posting online nearly every day.

In fact, that’s where I found him, on Instagram, where I watched one of his videos that showed an up-close and personal view of changing a tire on a Dreamliner.

“I look at future technologies and how we can implement them,” Taher says. “I also look at any asset and figure out how we can replace it, looking at the capital expense and investment required and determine when we’ll need to upgrade the equipment as it reaches the end of its life.” 

Taher earned his aerospace engineering degree at Brunel University in London where he graduated with First Class Honors. While in university he worked at Lufthansa for a year maintaining landing gears, and after graduating, he joined the engineering graduate program at Heathrow Airport where he spent three years working across the entire airport, learning about all the different engineering and systems in each part of the complex.

He had his hands in everything at the sprawling facility, from maintaining the terminal buildings to enhancing the reliability of the baggage system, from analyzing data about the underground trains to the systems that feed water across the airport. “Literally everything and anything,” he says. “I even did a stint on the airfield, and I fell in love with it, being out and about, driving on the taxiways and runways themselves.

“That really drew me in. So, when I finished the graduate program, I applied for the role of the system specialist for the aerodrome, and I haven't looked back.”

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I asked Mr. Taher about the major challenges he encounters in his work. 

“I would say that there are two challenges, really. Number one is the size of the job. When you scale an operation to the size of Heathrow Airport, it becomes a lot more difficult and a lot more challenging to manage your assets and to manage your maintenance schedules. Because straight away, there are just a lot more things to do.

“When something starts to fail, you think of a solution. Maybe I can do x, y, and z to overcome this problem. But then you multiply that by the thousands of assets you’re looking over and that are always requiring maintenance. It’s a huge job."

“Second, is the variety of the work. We have everything from train systems to water systems to electrical systems to baggage systems and airfield lighting systems to take care of. And a lot of that is jam-packed together underground, including tunnels and roads. We have a lot of different types of systems crammed into this five-square-mile environment. It’s probably one of the most congested environments in the region."

“That said, space becomes a real limiting factor when we want to introduce new technology or want to try something different. Our hands are tied because there's already so much infrastructure that we have to work around. You can't just say, 'Oh, you know what? We’re going to install this new technology. Let’s rip everything out and install something new. It’s just not that simple'."

“Now, on that point of trying new things and of working on projects, one of the biggest engineering challenges that we have is that the airport is operational from the early hours of the morning till 11:30 p.m. when the last flight moves. That leaves a window of only five-to-six hours to do maintenance. It becomes extremely difficult to find the time to do the work.” 

Taher describes the specific challenge of performing maintenance on the runways. He and his crews are typically able to access the runway at midnight, but they have to hand the runway back over by 4:00 a.m. so that the air side operations team can do their inspections. So when problems arise and solutions are slow in coming, they can’t make the planes wait. It’s all hands on deck to resolve the issue until time runs out. 

“All of these challenges make engineering even more difficult. But I love it because it means I have to think about things in different ways. My teams and I have to really think about solutions in ways that we wouldn't elsewhere. The constraints force us to think outside the box and always be dynamic with our approach.”

Although he’s not able to discuss details, Taher says there have been times during his tenure at LHR when the airport has been moments from a potential shutdown. Occasionally unique situations arise where even the most thorough contingency plans fall short. It’s times like this when the engineer’s skill and experience are put to the ultimate test. A near miss, as he says. “You need to be constantly on your toes to react to whatever the operation throws out.”

Contingency plans are written and rewritten, with safety guidelines updated. “We always have meetings and processes in place to see what the lessons are learned from these events so that something similar never happens ever again. Because the most important thing for us at the airport is, of course, safety.”

One of the major projects now at Heathrow is a new tunnel system between two terminals. This tunnel will house a baggage transport system and a train line that will transport passengers between terminals. As of now, it’s a full-blown construction site. The tunnel lies 40 meters underground, so the logistics of digging a gigantic hole on a live taxiway literally right next to aircraft and terminal buildings, are complex.

The engineer has to face these challenges from a logistical point of view as well as from a structural point of view to ensure that the taxiways remain compliant and are able to handle the weight of the aircraft while the construction takes place. 

Another current project is the reinforcing of Heathrow’s airfield control system that operates the lights on the airfield. The project encompasses all parts of the system, from the touchscreens up in the control tower all the way down to the actual lights on the airfield. This is the type of project that takes place periodically as technology progresses. You always want to have the most efficient and up-to-date technology possible.

Mr. Taher says, “The biggest challenge with all these engineering projects is that you have a live operation taking place while you work. Most of the time, you have to build the new system alongside the existing system and then, one night, flip the switch to move from the old to the new." 

One of the most difficult things about working at an airport, especially one of this size, is the number of controls and the amount of documentation that is necessary. “If you update something or make a change to a piece of equipment, it has to be documented,” Taher notes. “Because when that equipment requires maintenance in the future and if there is no clear recording of what we do now, it will be difficult to conduct those future repairs as no one will know what took place earlier with the equipment."

Taher adds, "We as engineers and maintenance people can’t just go out and do things. We have to go slow and handle things one at a time, documenting every step we take so that everyone now, and in the future, understands the situation. There are so many different stakeholders and different departments that rely on each other. Everything at the airport is connected, and everyone has to be able to understand what is happening in this complex puzzle that is Heathrow."

Taher told me about one of the systems he works with at LHR, that being a soda cleaner that is specifically designed to remove rubber from the lenses of the runway lights. “When an aircraft lands on a runway, it leaves behind a massively thick layer of rubber residue on the lights. Twice a week, we go out onto the airfield and clean the lights to make sure that the pilots always have the best view of the runway."

“We also remove rubber from the runway itself, particularly the touchdown zone. We have massive trucks that crawl down the runway at about 5 mph. Basically, they are giant pressure washers that use hot water to blast the rubber off the asphalt and then suck it all up into tanks in the back.

“We have massive HVAC systems. And they’re powered by our own generation station at the south of the airport. It’s called the Energy Centre, and to produce the power, we burn locally sourced wood chips. We not only power the airport with the electricity generated there, but we also give back energy to the grid when our production exceeds our needs.”

He told me a story of an unusual occurrence. “Once I was walking down the airfield and I saw a budgie that was literally sitting underneath a plane, scared for his life. It was frozen, it couldn't move. I believe it had injured his wing, and this budgie literally just sat there. I walked up to it, picked it up, put it in a box, and took it to the veterinary center for them to care for it."

"That’s something that people may not know about Heathrow Airport. We have a vet on-site due to the large number of animals transported through LHR. Everything from the typical dogs and cats to elephants and alligators and even chameleons." 

“We've had lions come through. And any animal that may need rescue at the airport, we take to the veterinary center."

“So, as we found this little budgie that seemed to have maybe escaped from being transported, or maybe had flown in from somewhere, it literally sat there on the airfield extremely scared. I took him to the veterinary center where they nursed him back to full health."

“I love the complexity that comes with working with so many different stakeholders,” Taher says. "Every time you want to produce a project, there are many people with different perspectives that you can work with to ensure that the project is completed successfully. Whenever I have an idea, I go out and try to understand how this idea is going to impact other people and departments here at the airport. It’s a huge part of my role, and actually one of my favorite things to do."

“What I most appreciate about working at Heathrow is that you don’t fall into a mundane rhythm. There's always something happening, something different to work on. There's always that buzz, that energy."

"When I see an aircraft taking off while I’m driving down the taxiway, I get such a unique, wonderful feeling. It’s a fantastic, special environment to work in, from the smell of the tarmac and the jet fuel, all the way to when I get to speak to passengers in the terminal, realizing that all the engineering that I’m doing behind the scenes, ultimately, is for that passenger. So that they can have the best experience as they’re leaving on a work trip, flying to visit family, or going off on a holiday."

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Featured image: Mohammad Taher