Aircraft Washing Robot: From Mops to ABB Arms

How the aircraft washing robot grew from hand crews with mops to Lufthansa's Skywash and JAL's new Aerowash robot, and where ABB washdown arms could fit.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

10/4/20265 min read

An aircraft washing robot does one of the dirtiest jobs at an airport: scrubbing exhaust soot, oil and insect remains off a fuselage that can stand as tall as a house. For most of aviation history that job was done by crews with hoses, brushes and long-handled mops, often from ladders and work stands. This post follows the work from wartime wash lines to the Skywash robot that Lufthansa put into service in 1997, then looks at the Aerowash robot Japan Airlines showed at Narita in August 2026. It ends with where ABB robots could fit and what still stands in the way, from de-icing to training.

Two sailors standing on a grey fighter jet scrubbing it with long brushes on a carrier deck

Two sailors wash an F/A-18 Hornet with long-handled brushes on the deck of USS Enterprise, 2004. Photo: U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

How airliners were washed by hand

Early aircraft were small enough to wash like a car. A photo from Naval Air Station Jacksonville, taken around 1944, shows two WAVES, women of the US Navy reserve, washing a North American SNJ trainer with a hose and a brush while one of them stands on a short stepladder to reach the engine cowling. Air forces washed aircraft to protect them as much as to keep them tidy. Dirt, salt and exhaust residue hold moisture against aluminium skin and speed up corrosion, so cleaning became part of routine maintenance.

Two women washing a grey propeller trainer aircraft with a hose, one on a stepladder

Two WAVES wash a North American SNJ trainer at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, around 1944. Photo: U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

As aircraft grew, the job grew with them. A US Air Force photo from Indian Springs, Nevada, dated 20 April 1952, shows a ground crewman in overalls spraying a jet fighter with a hose on an open apron. Airliners such as the Boeing 747 made it far harder. Crews had to work at height on stands and lifts with brushes and chemicals, and washing a 747 by hand took around ten hours. Military bases added wash racks, fixed spray systems on the apron that rinse an aircraft as it taxis through, but they rinse without scrubbing.

Black and white photo of a man in overalls spraying water on a jet fighter on an apron

A ground crewman hoses down a jet at Indian Springs, Nevada, on 20 April 1952. Photo: U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The first serious robot for the job was Skywash, built by the German concrete pump maker Putzmeister. It put a large manipulator with 11 programmable axes on a truck, with a rotating brush at the end, and drove it around the parked aircraft. After a successful test in 1993, Lufthansa ordered two SW 33 machines in 1994, and in 1997 Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services put the first fully operational Skywash into service at Frankfurt. FlightGlobal reported at the time that it could clean a Boeing 747-400 in three hours, against the ten hours needed by hand.

Four engine propeller aircraft rolling toward the camera through arcs of water spray

A P-3C Orion taxis through a wash rack's water spray in Okinawa, Japan, 2005. Photo: U.S. Navy via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Aircraft washing robots in 2026

On 28 August 2026 Japan Airlines showed an AW3 washing robot at its aircraft washing facility at Narita International Airport. The AW3 comes from Aerowash AB of Sweden and cleans the outside of the aircraft with a telescopic arm that a staff member controls remotely. JAL says it is the first Japanese domestic airline to use such a robot, and it plans to start full operations with one unit later in 2026 once staff are trained. The airline expects up to 40 percent fewer labour hours per aircraft and says some areas will still be cleaned by hand with long-handled mops.

Two airmen on a metal work stand beside the tall tail fin of a jet inside a hangar

Crew chiefs work on the tail of an F-16 from a tall work stand at Shaw Air Force Base, 2012. Photo: Krystal Jeffers / U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

JAL frames the robot as a way to make the work easier and safer. Today its ground staff work at height while handling cleaning chemicals, and the remote arm keeps them on the ground and away from the spray. JAL says the aim is to ease the physical workload, not to eliminate jobs, and that staff will spend the saved time on other work. De-icing is the next job in line for automation, and it is still mostly manual. In winter an operator rides in the basket of a boom truck and sprays heated fluid over the wings and tail before each departure, often at night and in snow.

Airliner at a jet bridge in snow while a de-icing truck sprays orange fluid

A Boeing 737 being de-iced at the gate at Milwaukee's airport, 2008. Photo: Nicholas Hartmann / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB does not make an aircraft washing robot, and no ABB robot is part of the JAL project. ABB does build arms for wet work. The IRB 1300 can be ordered with Foundry Plus 2 protection against water and dust, and the larger IRB 6790 Foundry Prime is designed for high pressure water jet cleaning in plants with 100 percent humidity. In paint shops, ABB's IRB 5500 robots already move spray guns over whole car bodies. Our robotic car wash post looks at how arms like these could clean cars.

Small ABB industrial robot arm with protective finish in a wet work cell

An ABB IRB 1300 with Foundry Plus 2 protection, built to handle water and dust. Photo: ABB

Where aircraft washing goes next

An aircraft is much larger than any of these robots can reach, so an ABB-based washing system would need the arm on a mobile base or a lift. That is a possibility, and ABB has not announced such a product. The cell would start from the aircraft's 3D model, as robot cells in aircraft assembly already do. Brush paths for each aircraft type, with safe distances to antennas, probes and windows, could be planned and tested offline in RobotStudio before an airline lets a robot near a real airframe.

Close view of the wrist of a white ABB paint robot arm against a bright background

An ABB IRB 5500 paint robot, a design built to work in explosive paint booth air. Photo: ABB

At home, nobody needs an aircraft washing robot, but the technology does reach households in other forms. The same ideas, a remote or automatic arm that follows a known surface with a brush and water, show up in automated car washes, window cleaning robots and facade cleaners. For airlines the near future is a mix. Robots like the AW3 will do the large flat areas of the fuselage and wings, people with mops will do the edges and details, and de-icing will probably stay with trained operators in boom trucks for some years.

Two engineers with a laptop and a tablet showing a robot model, a white ABB robot behind them

Engineers share a robot cell design through RobotStudio Cloud. Photo: ABB

Cost is the first open question, since an airline has to buy, store and maintain a large machine that may wash only a few aircraft a day. Safety is the second. A robot arm working near a parked airliner must never strike the skin, and an aircraft costs far more than any robot. Then there are rules and skills. Each aircraft type has its own list of areas that must not be sprayed or brushed, and JAL is training staff before the AW3 goes into full use. Water and chemicals have to be collected and treated, which makes the wash bay itself part of the investment.

Two people in yellow rain suits and goggles spraying soapy water at an aircraft wheel

Airmen in rain gear and goggles clean the tyres of an F-15E at the Nellis Air Force Base wash rack, 2012. Photo: Chris Hubenthal / U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

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