A lifting device for mounting and maintaining an aero-engine is characterized by comprising lower guide rails, rollers, short rods, long rods, guy cables, upper guide rails, winding drums, motors, an engine, unfoldable mechanisms, scissors fork mechanisms and drive control mechanisms; the two lower guide rails, the rollers, the scissors fork mechanisms, the upper guide rails and the drive control mechanisms form the two independent unfoldable mechanisms together; the two independent unfoldable mechanisms are perpendicularly arranged at the front end and the back end of the engine; the lower guide rails are fixedly connected with the engine; the upper guide rails are fixedly connected with an airplane; the drive control mechanisms comprise the guy cables, the winding drums and the motors. The lifting device has the advantages that the folding ratio is large, the radial direction space between the engine and the airplane can be effectively utilized under a completely gathering condition, meanwhile accurate positioning can be formed with a main mounting part of the engine, and the quick mounting is facilitated; during the expansion process, the expansion is stable, the perturbation is small, and the device is not only suitable for the aero-engine, but also can be applied to a crane for industrial buildings and an escaping device for fire hazard.