Plain English Meaning

Small dings, scrapes, or dents picked up on the ground when an aircraft is bumped while being moved in or out of the hangar or parked next to other aircraft.

Full Definition

Minor cosmetic or structural damage to an aircraft caused by contact with hangar walls, doors, equipment, tugs, or other aircraft during ground handling, towing, or storage rather than during flight operations.

Context Anchor

Seen during preflight inspection, especially when checking outer wing surfaces, wingtips, the tail section, and areas that may have been bumped while the airplane was parked or moved.

Derivation

‘Hangar’ is the building where aircraft are stored, and ‘rash’ is borrowed from the everyday sense of a skin irritation — small marks that appear without a single dramatic cause. Together the term captures the idea of accumulated minor scuffs that aircraft up sitting around on the ground.