Aviation Maintenance Terms beginning with S

SAE

Society of Automotive Engineers. A professional organization that has formulated standards for the automotive and aviation industries.

SOAP

Spectrometric oil analysis program. An oil analysis program in which a sample of oil is burned in an electric arc and an analysis is made of the wavelength composition of the resulting light. Each chemical element in the oil, when burned, produces light containing a unique band of frequencies. A computer analyzes the amount of each band of frequencies and prints out the number of parts of the element per million parts of the entire sample. SOAP can predict engine problems by warning the engine operator of an uncharacteristic increase of any elements in the oil.