We remember the 1980s when the business world was atwitter about the promised advent of the “paperless office.” Let’s hope the current commercial efforts to produce a paperless maintenance hangar fare better for those of us who maintain our own aircraft.

Maintenance and parts manuals on CD-ROM make sense, since they’re more compact and durable than paper and allow you to look stuff up in a hurry. Or at least they should.

At least two vendors currently offer CD-ROM based service and parts manuals for differing numbers, types and ages of aircraft. Here’s a quick view of both. …