Paper logbooks have a failure mode.
We fixed it.

I'm a certificated A&P mechanic. Before I started building software, I spent years on the ramp signing off maintenance on general aviation aircraft. Paper logbooks. Binders full of entries in six different handwriting styles. Photos stapled to pages. Work order numbers written in pencil.

I watched logbooks go missing during aircraft sales. I watched unsigned entries become legal disputes. I watched mechanics sign entries they didn't perform because the paperwork was already done and the aircraft was wheels-up. None of this was malicious — the system just had no guardrails.

FAR 43.9 is specific about what a maintenance record must contain. It's not a suggestion. But nothing in the regulation required those records to be tamper-evident, verifiable, or auditable after the fact. Paper is easy to alter and impossible to prove unaltered.

myAviationTools is the system I wanted when I was on the ramp. Append-only records with SHA-256 chain integrity. Mechanic signatures tied to certificate numbers verified against the FAA Airmen registry. Maintenance history anchored to a public blockchain — not because it's trendy, but because it means anyone with a block explorer can verify the chain without trusting us.