The UK’s Royal Air Force has several squadrons of Sea Harrier “Jump Jets” fighter aircraft. These are known as Jump jets because they require very short take off and landing lengths on the runway. Each Jump Jet has thousands of spare parts, some of which are very critical and expensive. Until now, the only way to track the movement of these parts in the various materials stores, depots and aircraft hangars was either manually or by semi-automatic means like barcoding. This is true for all makes of aircraft, not just the fighters. Thus even civilian aircraft have thousands of parts which need to be managed well to keep the fleet operational.