AEROPROOF: Aviation MEL and Airworthiness Dispatch Cockpit

Official Submission for the DEV Sanity Challenge (Path 1: Ship an Agent That Queries Real Content)
An autonomous flight dispatch clearance engine and Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) glass-cockpit simulator powered by Sanity Context MCP and structured regulatory knowledge graphs.

Quick Navigation

• Interactive Glass Cockpit: https://x-tahosin.github.io/aeroproof/

• Published Technical Article: The 34°C Runway Trap on DEV.to

• Public Sanity Context MCP Endpoint: https://aeroproof-live.api.sanity.io/v2026-03-01/context/mcp

• Sanity Project ID: aeroproof-live (Dataset: production, Public Read Enabled)

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/x-tahosin/aeroproof

Related MCP server: Maritime Vessel Data MCP Server

The High-Stakes Problem

In commercial passenger aviation, an airliner can depart with deferred inoperative equipment (such as an air conditioning pack trip, an auxiliary generator failure, or an autobrake fault) only if the defect complies with the statutory requirements of the FAA Master Minimum Equipment List (MMEL), carrier Operations Specifications (OpsSpecs), and federal Airworthiness Directives (ADs) under 14 CFR § 121.628.

Getting this calculation wrong is not a harmless bug: it is a federal felony and an existential flight safety hazard.

Why Keyword Search and Naive Vector RAG Fail

When an operator relies on generic vector search or keyword retrieval:

1. Searching for "air conditioning pack inoperative" matches Boeing 737 MMEL Item 21-50-01: "Allows dispatch with 1 inoperative pack provided cruising altitude does not exceed FL250."

2. A naive retrieval model reads this isolated clause and issues a LEGAL FOR FLIGHT (GO) clearance.

3. The aircraft takes off on a 34°C summer afternoon in Phoenix. The single operating pack cannot handle the electronic equipment cooling load. The avionics bay overheats at FL240, filling the flight deck with dense smoke and forcing an emergency descent.

Why Structured Content in Sanity is Mandatory

Standard retrieval failed because it treats regulations as flat text rather than a nested legal hierarchy:

• FAA Emergency AD 2024-18-09 explicitly overrules MMEL 21-50-01: If departure or destination Outside Air Temperature (OAT) equals or exceeds 30°C (86°F), dispatch with an inoperative pack is strictly prohibited due to thermal runaway risk in the electronics bay.

• Only a structured relational knowledge base linking ataSystem -> melItem -> environmentalConstraint (OAT >= 30°C) -> overridingDirective (AD Rank 1) can deterministically detect that the aircraft is grounded (STRICT NO-GO).

System Architecture

graph TD
    A[Cockpit Telemetry Inputs: OAT, Route, Altitude, Runway, Failures] --> B[AEROPROOF Dispatch Engine]
    
    subgraph "Sanity Content Lake and Context MCP Server"
        C[aircraftType: B737-800, A320neo] --> D[ataSystem ATA 100: ATA 21, 24, 32, 34, 36, 49]
        D --> E[melItem Nodes: Cat A/B/C Deferrals, Installed vs Required Qty]
        E --> F[contradictionRule Matrix: MMEL vs AD vs OpsSpec Precedence]
        G[regulatoryDirective: FAA Emergency ADs] --> F
        H[opsSpec: ETOPS B043, CAT III C055, RVSM B046] --> F
    end

    B <-->|Sanity Context MCP Tools: JSON-RPC 2.0| F
    B --> I[Regulatory Contradiction Auditor: 14 CFR Part 39 vs 14 CFR Part 121]
    B --> J[Glass Cockpit HUD: LEGAL GO, NO-GO, CONDITIONAL]
    B --> K[PIC and Dispatcher Dual Release Sign-Off: 14 CFR § 121.663 Release Hash]

Sanity Content Lake Schema Design

The AEROPROOF knowledge base models 38 interconnected documents in the Sanity Content Lake across five domain-specific schemas:

Multi-Hop Relational GROQ Dereferencing

*[_type == "melItem" && itemCode == $code][0] {
  _id,
  itemCode,
  title,
  repairCategory,
  installedQty,
  requiredQty,
  altitudeRestrictionFL,
  operationsProcedureRequired,
  maintenanceProcedureRequired,
  "ata": *[_type == "ataSystem" && _id == ^.ataSystem._ref][0] {
    chapter, name, criticalityTier
  },
  "aircraft": *[_type == "aircraftType" && _id == ^.aircraftType._ref][0] {
    model, icaoCode, maxCruisingCeiling
  },
  "conflicts": *[_type == "contradictionRule" && references(^._id)] {
    headline,
    baselineClaim,
    overridingSource,
    overridingClaim,
    triggerCondition,
    precedenceWinner,
    legalBasis,
    dispatchVerdict
  }
}

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Tool Suite

AEROPROOF exposes four formal MCP tools adhering to the Anthropic and Sanity MCP JSON-RPC 2.0 specification:

Statutory Precedence Hierarchy

When conflicting aviation authorities clash, AEROPROOF enforces federal statutory precedence:

1. Rank 1: FAA Airworthiness Directives (ADs). Mandated under 14 CFR Part 39. Absolute federal authority: strictly supersedes all airline manuals and manufacturer MMELs.

2. Rank 2: Carrier Operations Specifications (OpsSpecs). Mandated under 14 CFR § 121.628(b)(1). Governs specialized operations such as ETOPS overwater sectors and CAT III autoland.

3. Rank 3: Manufacturer Master MEL (MMEL). Baseline relief approved by the FAA Flight Operations Evaluation Board (FOEB).

4. Rank 4: Flight Crew Operating Manual (FCOM). Manufacturer operational guidance.

Four Instant Evaluation Scenarios

The live cockpit includes four pre-built evaluation scenarios demonstrating cross-manual contradiction resolution:

Visual Application Tour

1. Landing and Mission Briefing

Overview of the airworthiness challenge, live avionics status badges, and direct entry into the flight deck.

2. Glass Cockpit Nominal State

Nominal dispatch status displaying green clearance, live outside air temperature, and real-time engine telemetry dials.

3. Emergency Grounded State (34°C Hot Day Trap)

When Pack 1 fails at 34°C outside air temperature, the engine activates the red NO-GO banner, sounds the warning horn, and locks the release button.

4. Regulatory Contradiction Matrix

Side-by-side comparative analysis between baseline Boeing MMEL claims and overriding FAA Airworthiness Directives with statutory 14 CFR references.

5. Interactive Airframe ATA Subsystems Topology

Top-down aircraft schematic mapping ATA chapters across the nose, wing roots, turbofan engines, landing gear, and tail cone.

6. What-If Telemetry and Environmental Simulator

Interactive sliders for outside air temperature, cruising altitude, runway contamination, and live recalculation of drift-down ceilings.

7. Sanity Context MCP Terminal and Agent Trace

Real-time inspection of MCP tool executions, token consumption, execution latency in milliseconds, and GROQ graph traversal queries.

8. Captain and Dispatcher Dual Cryptographic Sign-Off

Implementation of 14 CFR § 121.663 mandatory mutual concurrence with digital authentication badges and official ACARS dispatch release generation.

9. Sanity Content Lake Project Details

Verification modal confirming project ID, dataset access parameters, schema structure, and public MCP endpoints.

Running Locally

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18 or later

• npm or pnpm

Quick Start

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/x-tahosin/aeroproof.git

# 2. Enter project directory
cd aeroproof

# 3. Install dependencies
npm install

# 4. Start local development server
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173/ in your browser.

Production Build

npm run build
npm run preview

Sanity Project Configuration

AEROPROOF connects directly to a live public Sanity Content Lake dataset:

• Project ID: aeroproof-live

• Dataset: production

• API Version: 2026-03-01

• Context MCP Endpoint: https://aeroproof-live.api.sanity.io/v2026-03-01/context/mcp

• Access Rule: Anonymous Public Read Enabled

Statutory References

• 14 CFR § 39.7: Compliance with mandatory FAA Airworthiness Directives.

• 14 CFR § 121.628: Inoperable instruments and equipment dispatch relief under Master MEL.

• 14 CFR § 121.663: Dispatch release certification and Pilot-in-Command mutual acceptance.

• FAA Order 8900.1: Flight Standards Information System (FSIMS) Dynamic Regulatory System (DRS).

License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.

AEROPROOF was created with engineering precision for the DEV Sanity Challenge 2026.