Super Bowl Party Lands Florida MRO in Hot Water
City officials have terminated the lease of St. Petersburg-based aircraft maintenance provider Sky Addict Aviation following a Super Bowl party at its Albert Whitted Airport hangar, which featured rapper 50 Cent and a large crowd of mask-less party-goers. After photos from the party went public online, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman tweeted that the party was “not safe or smart” and that “it may end up costing someone a lot more than 50 cent.” Sky Addict Aviation, which had just renewed its five-year lease in December 2020, now has six months to vacate the facility.

Bombardier and StandardAero Sign MRO Agreement
Bombardier has signed an agreement with StandardAero to provide enhanced engine and APU repair and overhaul capabilities for Learjet and Challenger aircraft customers at Bombardier’s Biggin Hill and Berlin service centers, in addition to its line maintenance stations in Europe. Dedicated StandardAero technicians will be available on site at these locations.

Collins Readies Dash 8 Freighter Conversion Offering
Collins Aerospace says it has nearly completed its first full freighter conversion on a De Havilland Canada DHC-8-300 (Dash 8) turboprop. It expects the supplemental type certificate to be issued mid-year, at which point it will offer serial full freighter conversions for the aircraft type.

New Thrust Reverser Door Corrosion Solution
Quiet Technology Aerospace (QTA) has earned FAA and EASA approval for its corrosion repair solution that can extend the life of thrust reverser doors on mid-size jets operating Honeywell HTF7000 engines. It has also developed a thrust reverser door permanent solution that is currently under review by regulatory authorities, which it expects to be available by mid to late 2021.

Helicopter Maintenance Software Partnership
Aviation software providers Digital AirWare and GPMS have partnered to integrate aircraft-specific data from GPMS’s Foresight HUMS predictive helicopter health monitoring system into Digital AirWare’s maintenance and operational software platform. The companies say the integration will enable better predictive maintenance and eliminate the need for manual entry of helicopter data for mission reports.

Delta TechOps Welcomes First Trent 7000 to Atlanta MRO Center
Delta TechOps has completed the first engine maintenance visit of a Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engine at its Technical Operations Center in Atlanta. It says the engine, from a Delta Air Lines Airbus A330-900neo, marks the first of many Trent 7000 engine repairs that will come through the facility from airline customers around the world. To prepare for the Trent 7000, its teams spent months in preparation, including aviation maintenance technicians and inspectors visiting the Rolls-Royce shop in the UK for special Trent 7000 training.

MTU Maintenance Pursues AI for Engine Inspections
MTU Maintenance Lease Services B.V. has renewed its partnership with Aiir Innovations, a provider of artificial intelligence based borescope inspection products, for a 12 month period, including the addition of a pilot project with MTU Maintenance Hannover. The companies will work together to explore new use cases and enhance the capabilities of Aiir Innovations’ solution, which MTU has been using to rapidly evaluate the condition of engines during lease transfers.

Magnetic MRO Trials Virtual Inventory Checks
Magnetic MRO has partnered with PwC to trial virtual stock-taking on its hangar inventory in light of pandemic lockdowns. Auditors have been conducting the virtual stock checks via Microsoft Teams, a process which Magnetic MRO says takes around four hours.

AEI Wins Additional Freighter Conversion Contract with ACS
Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. (AEI) has been awarded a contract to provide mid-life lessor Aero Capital Solutions (ACS) with 10 additional B737-800SF freighter conversions, which follows a contract in October to provide four of the conversions for ACS. The first additional 737-800 aircraft will commence modification in June 2021 at HAECO Xiamen and the second will commence at STAECO in July 2021.

VSE Aviation and Triumph Landing Gear Distribution Partnership
VSE Aviation has entered into an exclusive, five-year distribution with Triumph Systems & Support as part of its new Aviation Landing Gear initiative. The approximately $100 million agreement will see VSE as the exclusive distributor of more than 150 line-replaceable units and 1,6000 landing gear accessories supporting current, in-production Airbus and Boeing platforms, as well as providing support to commercial airline and MRO customers through global distribution centers.