If you're specifying a system for remote visual inspection (RVI) in aerospace, the datasheet alone won't tell you everything you need to know.

Modern engines are harder to inspect than ever before. Ceramic matrix composite components and advanced thermal barrier coatings bring new failure modes, from micro-cracking to coating delamination. Yet a narrowbody engine still typically offers just one borescope port per stage.

A scope that performed well on an older engine may not resolve what you now need to see through the same size of port. Meanwhile, growing fleets and tightening turnaround times mean inspection has to deliver robust, traceable evidence without becoming a bottleneck.

In the October 2026 issue of Aerospace Manufacturing, Evident's Fayez Basheer, Director, Global Product Marketing RVI, answers the questions engineers ask him most often when specifying new RVI technology in the article “RVI: What to ask before you buy”.

Questions to ask before you specify an RVI system

• Access geometry: why specification should start from the port, and how that changes which systems make your shortlist
• Image quality: why a datasheet figure reveals little, and the test that tells you far more
• Measurement: the four checks that decide whether a result will stand up, including one that's often overlooked
• Optical tip changes: what each probe withdrawal really costs, and how to work it out for your engine type
• Inspection data: why time lost after the scope comes out can turn a two-hour OEM sign-off into a two-day one
• The bottom line: the most common mistake in RVI procurement, and a more useful measure to use instead

Fayez also explains where Evident's IPLEX™ One videoscope with Swoptix 3D measurement, IPLEX™ TX II ultra-thin video borescope, and ViSOL™ software fit into those decisions. Whether you need to inspect castings and welds in production or engine gas paths in MRO, you'll come away with questions to put to any supplier, Evident included.

Read Fayez's full Q&A in Aerospace Manufacturing

Interested in what Evident can offer for aerospace RVI? Get in touch to arrange a demonstration with one of our experts