# Airffic Inspection > The future guide to drone inspection of ageing infrastructure: what to inspect, in which conditions, with which technology, at what cost, under which rules, and with what evidence. English at /en/, Japanese (guided by Sir Airffic Go in Hiroshima dialect) at /. Honesty rules: every research item has reviewScope (full_text / abstract / search_snippet / pending). Only full_text means the body was read. Country lists are curated selections, not readership rankings. Calculators are educational estimates. ## Machine access - [OpenAPI 3.1](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/openapi.json): REST API for ChatGPT GPT Actions, Grok tools and other agents - [MCP endpoint](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/mcp): Model Context Protocol, Streamable HTTP (tools: search_guide, get_asset, get_environment, list_cases, get_regulation, list_country_sources, list_papers, calc_gsd, calc_coverage, calc_cost) - [Static JSON index](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/api/v1/index.json) - [Developer guide](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/developers/) ## Assets - [Bridges](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/bridge/): Girder soffits, bearings, the underside of the deck: bridges start to fail where people find it hardest to reach. This guide separates what drones can take over - [Expressways & roads](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/expressway/): Viaducts, overpasses, sign gantries, noise barriers, cut slopes: an expressway is less a road than a chain of structures tens of kilometres long. This guide sor - [Road & rail tunnels](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/tunnel/): Lining cracks, delamination, leaks and overhead fixtures: in a tunnel, the worst failure is the one that falls from above. This guide separates where drones hel - [Slopes, levees & rivers](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/slope-levee/): Cut slopes, embankments, retaining walls, river levees, revetments and riverbeds. Earth structures run for kilometres, hide under vegetation and fail all at onc - [Dams](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/dam/): A downstream face that can exceed a hundred metres, an upstream face under water, inspection galleries inside the body, gates and spillways. A single dam combin - [Sewer pipes](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/sewer/): Sewer pipes carry wastewater under our streets every day, without a break. When they deteriorate, nobody sees it — until the road sinks. This guide separates wh - [Underground tunnels & utility conduits](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/utility-tunnel/): Power, telecoms, gas and water: the cables and pipes that keep a city running often share underground tunnels. They are long, dark and look the same for kilomet - [Condominiums](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/condominium/): Facade tiles on a condominium can one day fall onto the pavement below. In Japan, the rules call for the whole facade to be checked by tapping every ten years. - [Office buildings & facades](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/building/): A building facade carries tiles, stone, metal panels, glass and signs — all of them dangerous if they fall from height. This guide separates what drones can tak - [Chimneys & stacks](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/chimney/): Power plants, waste incinerators, factory boilers. Stacks are tall, dark inside and hot. Damage starts at the very top and on the very inside, yet getting peopl - [Power lines](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/power-line/): Transmission lines over mountains, distribution lines along town streets. The lines are long, and failures come from small fittings and nearby trees. This guide - [Transmission towers](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/transmission-tower/): Transmission towers built in Japan’s high-growth decades are ageing all at once: rust, bolts, foundations, insulators. Inspectors have walked mountain paths and - [Telecom towers](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/telecom-tower/): Phones connect thanks to telecom towers scattered across towns and hills. Sites are numerous and each one is small. Climbing them is dangerous, and getting near - [Solar PV plants](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/solar/): A utility-scale solar plant holds tens of thousands of modules. A failing module often looks fine but runs hot. This guide shows how thermal drones change the w - [Wind turbines](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/wind-turbine/): Wind turbines start to fail at the blade tips, where lightning strikes, and where sea spray hits. This guide separates what drones can take over from rope-acces - [Process plants](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/plant/): Refineries, chemical works, power stations: process plants start to fail at the tops of columns, at the tips of burning flares and inside cramped vessels. This - [Plant piping & pipe racks](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/piping/): A plant’s piping can add up to tens of kilometres. Deterioration starts where pipes rest on supports, under insulation and on the top tier of the rack. This gui - [Storage tanks](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/storage-tank/): Oil, chemicals, gas. A large storage tank is full of places that are dangerous for people: the roof, the top of the shell, the inside. This guide separates what - [Boilers & furnaces](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/boiler/): A power-plant or industrial boiler is a dark box tens of metres tall, its walls lined with thousands of tubes. Every day offline is expensive, so inspection is - [Mines & shafts](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/mine/): Stopes after blasting, deep shafts, high open-pit walls, tailings storage facilities: mines are full of places people must not approach. This guide separates wh - [Long-distance pipelines](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/pipeline/): Gas and oil pipelines run for hundreds of kilometres over mountains, under rivers and beneath towns. Most are buried, so the pipe itself cannot be seen from the - [Railways](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/railway/): Overhead lines, viaducts, cuttings and station roofs: railway inspection is squeezed into the few hours between the last and first trains. Next to live wires an - [Ports & quays](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/port/): Pier deck soffits, the waterline on steel sheet piles, caisson joints, voids under the apron: ports deteriorate where tide and waves meet and underwater where n - [Ships & offshore structures](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/assets/ship/): Ballast tanks, cargo holds, cargo tanks, flare stacks: ship surveys have demanded getting within arm’s reach inside dark steel boxes tens of metres tall. This g ## Environments - [GNSS-denied](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/gnss-denied/) - [Confined spaces](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/confined/) - [Darkness](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/dark/) - [Height](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/height/) - [Wind & turbulence](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/wind/) - [Magnetic disturbance](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/magnetic/) - [Strong electromagnetic fields](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/emi/) - [Water, spray & humidity](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/water/) - [Dust & smoke](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/dust/) - [Heat](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/heat/) - [Cold & icing](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/cold/) - [Explosive atmospheres](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/explosive/) - [Radiation](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/radiation/) - [Oxygen deficiency & toxic gas](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/toxic-gas/) - [Urban areas & people below](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/environments/urban/) ## Chapters - [Visible-light imaging and photogrammetry: millimetres per pixel decide what you can inspect](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/imaging/) - [Infrared thermography: a heat picture speaks only when conditions are right](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/thermal/) - [LiDAR: measuring shape and distance directly from the round trip of light](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/lidar/) - [Radar: below the ground, through the smoke, and watching from orbit](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/radar/) - [AI and data management: turning thousands of photos into records you can act on](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/ai/) - [Flight principles: how a multirotor holds itself still in the air](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/flight-principles/) - [Navigation and autonomy: knowing where you are, and where to go next, beyond GNSS](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/navigation/) - [Contact inspection: from drones that look to drones that touch and measure](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/contact/) - [Remote and BVLOS operations: can the sky stay safe when nobody is on site?](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/operations/) - [The wider robot family: inside pipes, on walls, under water and from orbit](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/technology/robots/) - [What inspection is worth: break down the cost, count what it protects](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/economics/) - [Editorial policy and our guide: how we cite and how far we read](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/editorial/) - [2035: the world where inspection became watching](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/future/) ## Research - [Case library](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/cases/) - [Regulations by country](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/world/regulations/) - [Frequently cited papers](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/world/papers/) - [Country sources](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/world/countries/) - [History of inspection](https://inspection.airfficworld.com/en/history/)