As executive editor of MRO and business aviation, Lee Ann Shay directs Aviation Week's coverage of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), including Inside MRO, and business aviation, including BCA.
She won the World Leadership Forum’s Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards in 2009 (propulsion category) and in 2002 (maintenance category), and has been a finalist in other years. In 2017, Lee Ann won the Aerospace Media Awards' Best Future Tech submission.
She holds a B.A. in English and political science from Luther College and an M.A. in nonfiction writing from Johns Hopkins University.
Large, multi-location MROs can spend $500,000 per year on manual subscriptions, making sure they receive the latest aircraft, engine and component maintenance information, said Vince Dohery, AviIT’s VP of business development. He said many of these big MROs have duplicate subscriptions because different sites don’t coordinate them, which increases technical publication costs. MROs know they need the latest versions to ensure safety and regulatory compliance, but some aren’t managing the data control as well as they should.
Pinnacle Airlines awarded a 10-year avionics asset management contract to Rockwell Collins. The Dispatch 100 contract supports Pinnacle’s 16 new Bombardier CRJ-900s that it is flying as Delta Connection. Rockwell will provide spares, logistics management, maintenance and technical support on a flight-per-hour basis. Value of the contract was not disclosed. Rockwell Collins said it has supported other Pinnacle avionics through a relationship with Northwest Airlines, for which Pinnacle also flies.
Delta signed a $1 billion agreement with Chromalloy Gas Turbine under which Chromalloy will develop about 50 Parts Manufacturing Approval (PMA) parts for CFM56-5 and -7 engine engines, as well as commit to send 250 customer engines to Delta for overhaul in the next 10 years. Delta already maintains and overhauls CFM56-3 and -7 engines, but this deal adds -5 engine MRO capability to its services.
